


Your Resident Demon Boy

by AstronomerAlways



Category: Recess (Cartoon)
Genre: AU, F/M, Fantasy, Sort Of
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-15
Updated: 2020-10-15
Packaged: 2021-03-09 03:47:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 15
Words: 32,737
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27018307
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AstronomerAlways/pseuds/AstronomerAlways
Summary: Everything was fine, and everything was normal at Third Street. Until those huge things decided to come out of the firey pits of hell (apparently) and reek havoc.





	1. Chapter 1

If it was any other day, Spinelli would be wide wake, still reeling from the excitement of surprise tickets to a wrestling match from her father. Maybe it was because it was late, maybe it was because it was Sunday, or maybe it was because of the traffic, but she was ready for bed.

"Tired, pookie?" Her father asked. Spinelli nodded and yawned. "Must be from all the excitement. Sure with this traffic would hurry up, though." And Spinelli agreed. Sleeping in the car with you head against the window wasn't exactly comfortable, and she's rather be in bed. Just as she was about to doze off and put a flat imprint of the glass on her forehead, there was an almost deafening boom was heard and shook any and all tiredness out of her. Eye's wide open, she and her father watched as this big creature, thing big. . . _thing_ jumped on the hood of the car before jumping over it onto other cars and into the nearby woods.

"What in the world was that?" She heard her father yell. It wasn't only them who saw, as those in the cars around them stepped out to see what the heck just happened. Still shaken, the sound of something else jumping on the hood of the car. Spinelli turned in time just to see a person, about the size of a kid, jump on the car, then onto the roof before running after what ever what _thing_ was into the woods.

Getting through the traffic took at least another hour, what with how difficult everyone was being about moving their cars after seeing what they did. Apparently what happened made the news, and her mother had been watching it and waiting for the two of them to get home. After getting free from her mother's bone crushing hug, Spinelli headed upstairs and got ready for bed. Even though an hour ago the bed would've been waiting for her with open arms, she was now wide awake. Plopping down on her bed, she looked out her window. A few people were outside with cameras, probably looking for what she and her father had seen on their way bak to take a picture.

In her opinion, they were kind of stupid. Those things looked dangerous. It left a huge dent in her father's car! He made a comment about it being a miracle that they were able to get home and him having to take to the shop. They were lucky it didn't attack. And how did these people know that it would attack them? It would be a massacre.

Well, at least she knew what was going to be the talk of the school tomorrow. Yawning, Spinelli was about to turn and get into bed when she saw the tree branch just outside of her window move. She wiped away some of the condensation on her window in time to see someone climb and sit on the branch. Whoever they were, 'cause she should see if it was a boy or girl, wore all black. Black sweatpants, black hoodie pulled up over their head, black shoes, even black fingerless gloves. They sat rather comfortably on that branch and waved.

Spinelli, being a mix of weirded out and curious, waved back. Feeling a little brace, she moved to sit in front of her window and opened it.

"Hey," She said. "You're that person who was chasing that thing from earlier, aren't you?" They nodded. "So what were those things? They looked dangerous and you were chasing after them like it was nothing. Weren't you afraid?" They shook their head. "I guess not. You wouldn't be chasing it if you were. . .So what's your name, kid?"

This time, they didn't answer.

"No answer, huh? Okay, how about this," She said, trying again. "Do you go to Third Street?" Still no answer. "Look, if you're not gonna say anything, then can you leave? I've got school in the morning, and you probably do, too. So if you don't mind. . ." Spinelli moved to close and lock the window. She paused for a second long enough to see him jump down from the branch and started to leave the yard.

Weird kid.


	2. Chapter 2

Considering what happened the night before, the morning routine went strangely normal for Spinelli. She climbed out of bed after being yelled at for the third time by her mother, climbing in the shower, getting dressed and gathering her homework before heading downstairs with her book bag slung over her shoulder. She sat at the kitchen table joining her parents as she ate her usal bowl of cereal.

Nothing weird, nothing out of the ordinary, until she headed for the door.

"And where do you think you're going, young lady?" Her mother asked as she opened the front door.

"To school? Isn't that where I'm supposed to go?" Spinelli asked.

"Not with those _things_ running around!"

"So am I not going to school?" She asked, barely holding back her hopefulness at the aspect of a day off of school.

"Yes, you are. You're just not walking there," her mother said. "You're going to take the bus."

"And when's the bus gonna get here?" Right as she finished asking, the bus pulled up in front of her house.

"Have a good day at school, sweetie!"

Getting on the bus, Spinelli spotted none of her friends. She figured their parents drove them to school. She could see why he parents didn't when she saw the state of the family car. The hood was wrecked, it was a miracle that they were able to get home last night without much issue.

Speaking of which, the reason behind the cars damage was the topic of the day. It was all the other kids on the bus were talking about. Some of them claimed to see it, others didn't and listened closely to those who did, and some were trying to figure out what they were. So when the bus arrived at school, Spinelli guessed that's all she would hear at school today.

When they climb off the bus, they were being ushered inside by some of the teachers. If this was anything to go by, normal recess probably wasn't going to be a thing for a while. She found her friends standing together near their classroom door. There was still some time before school actually started and they had to be in class.

"Hey, guys. What's going on?" She asked joining them.

"Hey, Spinelli! We were wondering when you would get here," TJ said before yawning.

"Did you hear about those things running around town last night?" Gus asked. "A few of them ran past my house. I could barely see them, since my dad boarded up the windows."

"Yeah, I saw them. I couple jumped on my dad's car last night when we were coming home," she said.

"Did you get a good look?" Vince asked, Spinelli nodded.

"They looked like wild dogs to me," she said.

"I'm just glad you're not hurt, Spin," said TJ.

Before the conversation could continue, the bell rang, and they had to go to class.

Surprisingly enough, they did have recess outside. There was, however, a sign saying they couldn't enter the woods or the abandoned playground. After the week of indoor recess, they weren't excited about the idea of being stuck inside.

"Based on what everyone is saying, the best guess is that they're probably just wolves that found their way into town," Gretchen said. "Or coyotes."

"Are there wolves supposed to be around here?" Vince asked. Gretchen nodded.

"The woods around the lake are very dense, they could be from there."

"Did you see anything, Mikey?" Gus asked.

"I think I slept through the entire thing," Mikey said.

"Mikey can sleep through an earthquake," Spinelli commented. "There was a kid chasing after them, though."

"A kid?!" They asked unanimously.

"Yep."

"Did you get a good look at him?"

"How old was he?"

"Does he go to school here?"

"No, I dunno, and I still don't know," she answered. "He jumped on the car after them. I'm not even sure if it's a guy or not. But. . .He came to my window. I'd guess he's around our age, maybe a little older, so he might go to school here, I dunno. But it could be anyone."

A small group of kids ran past them and over to the jungle gym where a bunch more kids had gathered around. Curious, the six of them went over to find out that was drawing this much attention.

Ol' Rusty looked a little worse for wear. A few claw marks now decorated the play structure. Probably not enough to have the whole thing replaced, but it didn't look safe enough to climb, with the frayed metal and some of them needing a tetanus booster.

"I-I don't think a wolf did that," Gus nervously said.

"You're right, Gus. A wolf couldn't have done this," said Gretchen. "A wolf has four toes. These marks show that whatever did this has five. And based on the size of each scratch, the paw of whatever did this has to be huge."

"Maybe it's a werewolf!" Someone from the crowd yelled.

"Oh, c'mon! A werewolf?" Spinelli shouted back. "Werewolves aren't real!"

"Do you have a better idea, Spin-ugly?" Ashley A. nastily asked.

"Do _you_?" She snapped back. Ashley A said nothing. "That's what I thought."

"Are we done staring at this thing? It's recess! I wanna do something!" Lawson shouted.

"Like _Battle Tag_!" As soon as those two words came out of his mouth, the crowd chanted, following him towards the field for a round or two.

"Hey, Teej. What's the matter? Aren't you coming?" Spinelli asked when she noticed he was staying behind.

"Nah. I think I'll sit this game out," TJ said. "I'm tired. I wouldn't be much help on anyone's team."

"Didn't get much sleep last night, huh?"

"Nope. I think I'll go take a nap in the cheese box. Could you wake me up when the bell rings?" He asked.

"No problem, Teej. I'll see you later."

The battle tag was much more brutal than Spinelli remembered it being. The first round left her sore, but she wasn't about to limp to the nurses office. No, she was just going to walk the pain off by passing up the second around for a walk around the playground. With most of the playground left behind for the game, Spinelli figured that checking up on TJ wouldn't be a bad idea. She crossed the playground over to the cheese box and peeked inside.

He wasn't asleep like he said he would be. Instead, he was sitting in the corner, reading a small book while occasionally writing in it.

"Hey, Teej. What'sha doin'?" Her sudden presence made him jump and quickly tuck that little book in his jacket.

"O-oh, hey, Spinelli. When did you get here?" TJ asked.

"'Bout a minute ago," she said. She climbed into the cheese box and joined him. "What was that book you were reading?"

"What book?"

"The book you put in your jacket," said Spinelli. "The one you were just writing in."

"Oh. . .that book," He said. "It's nothing."

"Nothing?"

"Yep. Absolutely nothing," he said. "What happened to battle tag? Is it over already?"

"No, I'm just a little sore so I decided to walk it off. But don't change the subject, Teej," she said. "I wanna know what that book is."

"Don't tell anyone, okay?" He asked. "It's a, uh, journal. Y'know, one of those things people keep their thoughts in? One of those."

"That's it? Geez, you act like it was something super secret," she said. "You probably just write up all your plans in that thing, right?"

"Right. Sorry, Spinelli. I sorta wanna keep what I have in mind secret until it's ready to go," said TJ. "You understand, don't you?"

"Yeah, yeah. It's no problem. I won't tell anyone," she said.

"So you got a close look at those things, huh?" He asked. "Were you scared?"

"Not really. I was falling asleep when the first one jump on the hood," she said. "Surprised is more like it."  
"What about that kid? You sure you didn't get a good look at 'em? I sorta wanna find out if they go here or not."

"Nope. He was wearing a hoodie with the hood up. I couldn't make out anything," she said. "He didn't say anything, either. Weird."

The bell rang, and other kids started to head inside. The two of them climbed out of the cheese box and joined their friends on the way back inside.

The rest of the day was uneventful. Most of the kids seemed to have forgotten about the mysterious creatures running around Third Street. At the end of the day, kids headed home, either on the bus like that morning or by their parents taking them home. Given how close their houses were, Spinelli took a ride with TJ and his parents instead of riding on the overcrowded bus.

Her parents weren't willing to let her go outside and play with her friends after school, either. Then again, most parents probably weren't letting their kids outside, and that made her feel slightly better. Rather than mop about it, that night, Spinelli planted herself on the couch in the living room and turned to wrestling before her mother made her go upstairs to do her homework.

But eventually, her mother did, and she had no choice but to hole herself in her room at her desk, working out math problems she'd rather pretend didn't exist. Closing her text book, she kicked off her boots and was ready to go to bed.

_KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK_

A knock at her window caught her attention. She walked over to the window, half expecting that kid to be standing or sitting on the branch outside her window again. And she was right. He was right there, sitting on the branch like it was nothing in the world. He still had that hoodie one, and she still couldn't get a good look at his face.

"So you're back," she said after opening her window. "What's your deal, kid? Am I the only person whose window you go to?" He nods. "Why?" He shrugged. "Is this about you jumping on my dad's car last night? I'm fine, dude. You don't have to keep checking up on me."

He shrugged again and moved to lay on his stomach. Still, like it was nothing.

"Are you out chasing those things again tonight?" She asked. He nodded. "Can you talk?"

"Yes," he spoke. He had a sort of raspy voice. It made her think he was wearing one of those toys that disguised your voice. She had one of those in the trunk in front of her bed, matter of fact. At lest she could tell that he, was in fact, a boy.

"You could've said something before, dude," she said. "Can I get a name?" He shook his head. "Do you go to Third Street? You know, the school around the block?" He nodded.

"I'm closer than you think. Really, really close," he said. Before she was able to ask him more questions, he stood up and jumped down out of the tree. He looked back up at her and waved before climbing over the fence and leaving the yard.

Still a weird kid.


	3. Chapter 3

The conversations on the bus the next day were just like the previous morning. Students were still swapping ideas about what was happening around town. Still, Spinelli only paid half attention to what the students around her was saying. Her mind was still on that kid popping up at her window.

What his deal, anyway? Was she the only one he went out of his way to show up at her window at night? Were there other kids that he went to? Probably not; she was sure it would be one of the first things she heard when she got on the bus. But no. as far as she could tell, this kid picked her to hang around.

She found her friends, already in the classroom, like most of the students were. Though she noticed right away there were less students than usual, though it was no means close to being like the time she and the group were the only students in school. But still. . .

"Hey, guys. Where is everyone?" She asked, joining them.

"We were just taking about that. Some of the parents won't let their kids go to school," TJ said.

"Apparently a lot of them woke up with ditches and claw marks in their yards and aren't willing to put their kids in any danger," Gretchen explained.

"Lucky kids. . ."

The bell rang, and they had to cut their conversation short. At least most of her friends were there, minus Mikey. Did he have all of those things in his yard, too? A third of the class was missing, but if the schools were still open, then they must not think it's that big of a danger for kids to go to school. Especially this school system, always on their case about something, like the statue incident.

Focusing in class was a challenge with that kid on her mind. Part of her wanted to be mad about it. Who did that kid think they were, always popping up when she was about to go to sleep. And on top of that not even tell her who he was. Not even a clue. But she couldn't be, she was still curious about him. For a minute she thought about the idea of grabbing him and pulling him into her room and demanding answers.

When the first recess came around, they made their way towards the door leading to the playground as usual, but was stopped by a very smug looking Ms. Finster telling them to turn around and head towards the lunchroom for _indoor recess_.

"Why can't they let us have recess outside?" Vince asked, pushing the doors to the lunchroom open. "They let us out yesterday."

"Maybe the whole playground is destroyed. The jungle gym was pretty messed up yesterday," TJ said.

"There's only one way to find out," Spinelli said before heading towards the windows with the others following. There was already a small crowd gathered around the window to see what was of the playground.

It was like the damage spread out. While yesterday it was just a few claw marks on old rusty, there were much more. The slide was barely hanging on to the rest of the jungle gym and was in shreds. As much as they all protested the school from getting rid of it, they all knew it would probably need to be replaced. The pavement wasn't much better off with so many potholes and cracks that you probably wouldn't be able to take a step without tripping or stepping on a crack.

"Woah. . ."

"What happened. . ?"

"How are they still letting us come to school?"

"That. . .That looks like a good reason for indoor recess," said Vince.

"It looks like a reason for us not coming to school at all," Gretchen said. "I have several questions regarding the school districts cancellation policies."

"Can't really be mad about indoor recess when seeing this," Spinelli said. "Right, Teej?" She turned to her friend, expecting him to answer, agreeing with her and the others. Instead he was focused on the playground, looking like he wasn't paying much attention to what they were saying and mumbling something to himself. She poked him to get his attention.

"Huh?"

"You okay there, TJ?" She asked.

"Oh, yeah. I'm fine. Just zoned out there for a minute," He said. "What were we talking about?"

"How trashed the playground is and that we shouldn't even be in school," she said. "Indoor recess makes sense after seeing that, doesn't it?"

"Yeah, it does," he said. "C'mon let's go figure out what to do for recess."

They ended up playing some bland generic board game that they couldn't be bothered to remember the name of. Barely paying attention to the actual game, the time went by painfully slow, and the idea that this was what recess was going to be like for some time was starting to offend them. More so TJ than anybody since it was a well known fact that one way to quickly enrage him was to mess with recess in any way/shape/form.

He showed his frustration by banging his head against the table. When Spinelli asked if he was okay, he nodded, explaining that though he wanted and could stage a protest against this, even he knew that them being stuck inside couldn't be helped so it would be useless.

Eventually it ended, and for the first time, they were all happy to go back to class. When lunch and second recess came around, they desperately didn't want to do the same, so they tried to form a conversation.

"So Spinelli, did you see that kid again last night?" Vince asked. Preferably not that. She wasn't in the mood to talk about that kid. Mostly from having thought about him all day and being more than ready to end the long train of thought on the subject. But if it was the only thing they could think of talking about. . .

"Yeah, he did," Spinelli said, sitting down at the lunch table. "He actually spoke."

"What did he say?" Gretchen asked. "Anything clues to his identity?"

"He said he was 'closer than I think. Really, really close.' Or something like that," Spinelli said. "Either he's messing with me, or he goes to this school."

"Sounds like he's messing with you," said TJ.

"I know. And I'm starting to get sick of it," Spinelli said.

"What about his voice?" asked Gus. "What did that sound like?"

"Kinda raspy, like he had a sore throat or something. Or one of those microphones that changes your voice. You know, one of those things?" The nodded, knowing what she was describing. Every now and then they would use one of those in one of their many plans. "He'll probably be back tonight. Any ideas on what I should ask him?"

"It should be something indirect about his identity would be the best approach," Gretchen said. "He seems set on not telling you who he is. Any direct questions won't be effective towards finding who he is."

"Alright, so indirect. Whatever that means. . . "

"Maybe ask what his favorites are? Like colors, games, movies?" Gus suggested.

"Sounds like a good idea," TJ said. "Ask him that sort of stuff. We'll narrow it down from all the students."

"Fine. I'll even right it down," she said sarcastically. "It'll be real official, like an interview." Yeah right. If anything, that kid was gonna give her vague answers and riddles about himself, and Spinelli already knew she wasn't going to be in the mood for that right before bed.

Unlike the last two nights, Spinelli brought over her desk chair next to her window with her notebook and waited for this mysterious kid to arrive. Come to think of it, she never saw him climb up the tree next to her window. He was just sort of. . . _there_. Like a little weirdo. Creeped out, she looked out her window just to check if he was already there, just watching her like the weirdo he is. He wasn't, and she started to think he was little less weird.

Right as she leaned back in her chair, she saw in the corner of her eye one of the lower branches of the tree shaking. She looked out of her window again and saw the mystery kid climbing into the tree. She opened her window right as he reached her window. He sat on the branch right outside it, as usual, swinging his legs as if he didn't have a care in the world.

"What's with you, dude? Always coming to my window is kinda creepy," she said, leaning closer to the window. He shrugged his shoulders. "So is it a slow night or something? You usually come a little later."

He nodded.

"Can I ask you a few questions?" She asked. He nodded again. Slowly he moved closer to her window until he was sitting on the windowsill, still facing outside.

"What's your favorite color?" She asked him. He didn't make any move to point or at anything the same color he liked. "It's a weird question, I know."

He pointed to the red t-shirt she was wearing as part of her pajamas.

"Red? Red's your favorite color?" She asked. He nodded. "Nice choice. What about. . . .your favorite ice cream. You got one?"

"Mint chocolate," he said in the same raspy voice as before.

"I guess everyone has their favorites, even if it's nasty," she said. " _Mint chocolate._ " He laughed at her disgust of his answer. "How abo—" She was interrupted by a loud _BANG_ and the sound of splintering wood. The mystery kid turned his attention from her to the edge of her backyard. After uncovering her ears with her hands, Spinelli looked in the same direction he was.

In her yard, trying to shake off the broken wood of the fence it broke through, was one of those _things,_ those monsters. As it shook off the last large pieces of wood off it's body, the mystery kid moved back onto the branch outside her window. He closed the window before jumping down to the ground, getting the monsters attention. With it's focus on him, he took off running the same way it came in with the monster chasing after him.

"He crazy for making that thing chase him," Spinelli said. She stood at the window, watching him until he was too far away to see. She could see the light outside the kitchen turn on before her father stepped outside to see what had happened. Speaking of which, she was supposed to be in bed right now.


	4. Chapter 4

"His favorite color is red, and his favorite ice cream is mint chocolate. He left before I could get anything else out of him."

The topic of what was happening in the town still stayed fresh as the sightings of those massive monsters continued steadily roll in. It took up more and more of the news reports as the property damage increased, and less people felt safe stepping outside of their homes. This included parents keeping their children home from school, which the school district fully understood, sending out notices that it wouldn't count against their child attendance record. Spinelli was not one of those kids.

"That doesn't help us identify who it might be," Gretchen said. They stood around their desks, waiting for class to start.

"Yeah, red is a pretty popular color," Vince said. "And a lot of people like mint chocolate ice cream."

"It was all I could ask him about, alright? He had to leave before I could ask him more," Spinelli said. "Relax. He's probably gonna visit me again tonight like always."

"Can you guess how tall he is?" Gus asked.

"No. He's always sitting on the branch outside my window. If he ever came in my room and stood next to me, then I'd know," she said. "But he didn't, so I don't."

"It's alright, Spin. You tried your best," said TJ. "But he acts like he does whatever you ask him to."

"I dunno what his deal is with coming to my room every night is, though," Spinelli said. The bell rang just as the last few students walked into class. With everyone in their seats, the day went forward as normally as it could.

It was difficult paying attention with the lesson what with everyone mind being on what's been happening to their neighborhood. A few of the kids sitting closer to the back was able to get away with passing notes and whispering to each other about it.

About halfway through their first lesson, there was a light knock at the classroom door before Hank the janitor quietly opened the door. The students and Ms. Finster turned to his as he gestured her to come closer. The students watched as he whispered something into her ear before leaving and going to the classroom right across from them.

"Alright, everyone up and in a line," Ms. Finster ordered in the quietest voice they ever heard her speak in. "And do it _quietly._ "

Not willing to challenge her, the class got out of their desks and gathered in line. When they stepped outside the classroom, they saw the other classes walking out, in line, towards the front door of the school. When they reached outside, they saw a few school buses parked and being packed with students, as well as others continuing to pull up.

"What do you think is going on?" Gus asked. "Why are we leaving the school?"

"It appears to be an evacuation, though I don't know why," Gretchen said as they climbed into their bus.

"It is an evacuation. One of the custodians found one of those. . .creatures, towards the back of the playground," Menlo, who sat in one of the seats across from them. "The school's being emptied for the safety of the students."

"Do you know how many?" Asked Vince.

"Just one. And it was sleeping, which is why they wanted everyone to be quiet as we left. Didn't want to risk causing a ruckus that might cause it to awaken," Menlo said. "I estimate that school will be cancelled tomorrow, if not the rest of the week."

"Hey, at least we get out of school super early," Spinelli said just as the bus drove off. "That's one good thing that came out of this."

One by one, the school buses left and dropped students off at their respective homes. Stepping inside, Spinelli found the house to be empty. At least that was a plus. She barely got to stay home by herself, what with her overprotective mother. Her father was more lenient on the idea, but whatever.

She skipped the TV and headed right for the kitchen for an early bowl of ice cream. If there was one thing that being home while sick taught her it was that no good cartoons was on until 4 in the afternoon. Just a bunch of soap operas and news shows. Ugh.

Nah, rather than sit on the couch and watch a bunch of shows she didn't like she headed up to her room.

"Maybe we won't have school for the rest of the week," She said to herself. It might've sounded hopeful but you never know, right?

. . .

Being stuck in the house was a lot less exciting on a school day than kids tended to imagine it. As soon as it his 3:30 the daily motions of coming home and doing homework resumed, as if her school wasn't on lockdown because of suspected monster activity. Spinelli could hear the TV playing downstairs in the living room, and thought about going down to watch for any news about what the heck was going on. On the one hand, that kid could be showing up at her window at any moment, on the other hand, he usually showed up later, when she was supposed to be asleep.

"Hey, pookie. Heard you had an early day," her father said as she came into the living room.

"Huh? Oh yeah. They found some stuff on the old playground and evacuated the school," said Spinelli..

"Oh, sweetheart, are you okay? You didn't get hurt, did you?" Her mother said. She came out of the kitchen, barely hiding all that motherly concern that she found to be oh so embarrassing. Right away, her mother fussed over her, looking her over for cuts and bruises.

"I'm fine, mom," she whined. "I didn't actually see anything."

"Good! You'd think they'd inspect the schools to make sure nothing like this would happen!" Her mother said. "Putting kids in danger like that. Doesn't anyone down there ever think?"

"Hey, at least you don't have school tomorrow," her dad said to try and lighten the mood.

"School's cancelled tomorrow?" she asked.

"Uh-huh. Safety concerns. For the rest of the week, too," he said. "One of us'll probably stay home to watch you."

"But I was fine at home for a couple of hours today. . ."

"I know, but call us overprotective," her dad said. "We'd feel better with one of us at home, especially with those monsters around."

"If you say so."

. . .

Long after dinner and bed time, something that she didn't understand why she had to follow when she wasn't going to go anywhere tomorrow anyways, she laid on her bed, waiting by the window for the strange kid to show up. Maybe she could ask him some more questions, but he acted like he didn't want to answer any of them.

Honestly he was starting to get on her nerves. Coming up to her room out of nowhere and acting like they were friends or whatever. Who did he think he was? The lease he could do was answer a few questions.

A knock at her window caught her attention. Speak of the devil. . .

"You've got some nerve coming here," Spinelli said, as she opened the window. She leaned on the windowsill blocking his way into her room. "What's your deal, kid?"

He sat on the branch near her window, as always, answering her question with silence.

"I don't know what I expected," she said. "I've got some questions, and unless you're gonna answer them, you're not getting in my room. Got it?" He nodded. "Alright, come in. But don't make a lot of noise. My parents are sleeping."

She moved out of the way, allowing him to climb through the window. When he stepped inside, he stretched before sitting on his bed.

"First question," she said, not wasting anytime. "Do you know about what they found at the school?"

A nod. She joined him on her bed.

"Does that mean anything? They aren't after kids are they?" She asked. He shook his head, but it was only after a pause, and slow. He raise his hand with one finger up, then opened his hands and wavered. "One kid? Sort of after one kid?" He nodded. "Why?"

He groaned, really big surprise there, before falling back on the bed.

"Is it complicated?" She asked. He nodded. "Can't be that complicated if you'd tell me. I have no idea what's going on. You could at least tell me why you come to my room about every night."

He shrugged, still laying on her bed.

". . .I trust you. . " he said. Though it was progress, Spinelli was starting to think that the most she was going to get out of him were two or three worded answers.

"You _trust_ me? What for?" She asked. "All I did was let you into my room."

He shrugged again.

"You're weird, kid," she said. "Where are you even from?"

"The fiery pits of Hell," he said. Spinelli watched him stand and walk to the window. She joined him at the window to see someone else dressed in a similar outfit, walking in her backyard looking impatient.

"There's _more_ of you?" She asked, folding her arms. He shook his head before holding up two fingers. "It's just the two of you?"

He nodded. He opened her window and started to climb out but stopped and turned back to her.

"What's the matter?" She asked. He came closer to her before stopping and leaning in. And kissed her.

He kissed her. On the cheek, which she _guessed_ was better than on the lips, but it was still a kiss.

Eww.

Before she could punch him, preferably in the face, he was out the mirror and in her backyard, talking to the other kid who decided to make their appearance. They left, but not before waving back up at her.

She made a mental note to punch him whenever he came back.

Jerk.


	5. Chapter 5

Spinelli, to her dismay, woke up at the same time she would have been forced to on a regular school day. She was thankful that her mom didn't wake her up as if she had somewhere to go, but she woke up anyway, at – she glanced at her clock and groaned when she read the time – a while 15 minutes before her usual time. Ugh.

She rolled over and tried to go back to sleep. Unless her stomach was growling and threatening to digest itself, she could stay in bed.

She could hear the rain outside beating against her window. Already, it felt like a day that was meant to be lazy. She wondered which of her parents decided to stay home. Probably her mom; her dad, as lighthearted as he was, had his chivalrous moments, and would probably care too much about her safety to let either of them go outside with what was happening.

Or they both stayed. It didn't matter.

A tapping at her window was brushed aside. The wind was blowing every now and then, explaining it away. Plus it was daytime. Definitely not the kid. He always came at night to keep himself from being seen. Nope.

The tapping happened again, and it really should have been ignored if it wasn't harder and louder than before.

"No," She said, sitting up in bed. She blinked, and her eyes stung as she adjusted to the little bit of light in her room. "That better not be him I swear to God. . . "

She tossed aside her blanket angrily crawled to her window.

A lo and behold he was sitting on the branch, in the rain, as if the weather was just peachy and water wasn't falling from the sky.

"What are you doing here?!" She said, trying to keep her voice quiet enough to not get the attention of her parents. "It's morning!"

He nodded.

"Go away! Shoo! I'm still mad at you, anyways," Spinelli said. He tilted his head. "You know what for! Who gave you the right to kiss me? Do you go around kissing girls without their permission?"

He shook his head.

"I'm still not letting you in. I haven't even had breakfast yet. Come back later or something. Way later," she said, closing her window. The nerve of that kid. As if she had nothing else better to do than entertain him.

. . .

Breakfast was just a bowl of cereal, which she didn't complain about; she could take it back to her room without an argument about it with her mother. As it turned out the two of them decided to stay home, eyes glued to the TV screen as the news showed more of the reports on what's been happening around Third Street lately.

And she understood why; it was kind of a big deal. Supernatural things didn't happen much at all, plus that's all anyone would be talking about long after it was over. But she didn't feel like watching paranoid people rant about their conspiracy theories for hours on end.

"Are you still here?"

Coming back to her room, she was that he was still sitting on the branch outside of her window, the same exact spot, as if she didn't just tell him to get lost. The rain must've soaked through his clothes by now. He must really be stubborn.

Or stupid. Probably stupid.

"I'm still not letting you in," she said. Spinelli sat at her desk and ate. He stayed, patting his knee's as he patiently waited.

Dumb kid.

She might go for another bowl. She wasn't in a rush.

After taking the bowl into the kitchen and turning down another, she came back and he was still there.

"You really want to come in, huh?" Spinelli asked, lending against the windowsill. He nodded. She sighed. "Alright. Come closer, first."

He moved closer, still sitting on the branch but within her reach. Once he was close enough, she welcomed him with a sharp smack to the face, which was a feat, considering that she didn't know where his hoodie ended and face began.

"That was for kissing me last night! You're lucky you aren't closer or I'd punch you!" She said. "You better not do it, again!"

He nodded quickly.

"Good. Now what do you want?" Spinelli asked. He gestured his hands for her to come closer. "What? You want me to come with you?"

He nodded.

"No can do, kid. It's raining, and I'm sure my parents are gonna come up here and check on me," she said. "And how do I know I should trust you to take me anywhere? You haven't even given me a name."

She stopped talking, letting the sound of the rain take up more of the space between them. What else was she going to be doing today besides homework? And her parents would probably nap all day; rainy days tended to have that effect.

"Alright, fine," she said. "Give me a minute to get ready."

With that she closed the window and blinds.

What the heck was she getting into? Being talked into sneaking out by someone who barely said a word at all.

Whereas she would normally wear her oversized t-shirt and striped leggings, she replaced it with a pair of jeans, black t-shirt and jacket, still keeping her boots to protect from the mud. She opened the window, and he was still there of course.

"Alright, I'm ready. I hope you were expecting me to come out the back door or anything. I'd get caught right away if I tried that."

Taking a deep breath, she started to climb out the window and onto the branch. The motions weren't too unfamiliar to her; she had snuck out a few times before and the tree next to her window came in handing for doing it. But she hadn't done it in the rain and with the risk of slipping.

She felt him grasp her arm and side, pulling her out of her room and onto his lap before jumping down to ground. She pushed away from him.

"You're really pushing it, kid," she said as she got her footing. "I've got half a nerve to knock you out!"

He held up is hands and self-defense. She folded her arms.

"You've gotta close my window. My floor is gonna get wet," she said. "I would've done it myself if _someone_ didn't manhandle me."

"Sorry," he said.

He climbed back up the tree and managed to close her window. When he jumped back down, his boots squashed into the mud.

"See, that's why we shouldn't be out here," Spinelli said. She sighed. "C'mon. Why'd you want to bring me out here?"

He held his hand out for her to take. She eyed it, wondering exactly who this kid thought he was, asking to hold his hand.

"No thanks, I'm good," she said. "Can we go now?"

. . .

They ended up taking the less commonly taken route to the lake, probably to avoid being spotted, Spinelli assumed. They reached the woods nearby the lake that she and her friend spent plenty of time at skipping rocks. Following him through the tree's, she watched him look around, examining the ground for who knows what.

She folded her arms as they got deeper into the woods. Parts of the trees began to appear shredded off or damaged, along with a few that were completely knocked over, exposing the roots underneath. The kid looked around a few of the trees that clearly had deep, numerous, claw marks on them.

"Is this where you think those monsters are coming from?" She asked. He nodded. "Wouldn't they have found this by now? It's not exactly hard to miss if you're really looking for anything."

He shook his head, helping her down a semi steep, muddy, and slippery hill. She followed him to a pile of fallen and deteriorating trees. In the middle of the pile was one massive tree that somehow managed to stay up despite the tree's around it having fallen, and it looking worse for wear, with the top cut off and the base cut in half vertically.

Though the rain made it harder to see, there was a carving in it. A circle, with a square, then diamond on the inside. Spinelli followed him as he leaned in closer. Upon closer inspection, the middle of the groves were lit up with what looked like tiny embers.

"What's this?" she asked.

"Door," he said.

"Doesn't look like any door I've seen," she mumbled.

"Portal, door. Same difference," he said as he stood up. He patted the side of pants before reaching in and pulling out a pocketknife. He careful carved out a large 'X' across it. Slowly, the ember-like lights flickered out.

"That's one," he said, standing up straight.

"You mean there's more than one?" Spinelli asked. He shook his head. "Do you know where they are?" He shook his head again. She sighed. The rain started to let up slightly, and she wondered how much trouble she was going to get in if her parents knew she was gone. "Still don't know why you wanted me out here with you. You don't need me to do this."

"I trust you," he said.

"I barely know you, dude. I'm a pretty trustworthy person but you should get to know someone before trusting them," she said.

They continued walking through the woods, presumably looking for more broken and fallen trees.

"Question," Spinelli said. "You're just a kid right?" He nodded as they avoided a thick pool of mud. "So why are you doing this? I'm not complaining or anything but it's dangerous, isn't it? You could get really hurt."

He shrugged.

. . .

They only found two more of those portal things before heading out of the woods. Taking the short route, they reached Spinelli's backyard again. He helped her climb back in the tree and through her window. He left without saying a word, and she changed out of those wet clothes to not give any clue that she was gone for a few hours.

Once dressed, she quietly walked downstairs and checked on her parents. She let out a sigh of relief when she saw that they were asleep on the couch. Deciding that a nap sounded good right about now, she turned and went back upstairs and towards the bed.


	6. Chapter 6

Another day off from school, nothing too surprising, all things considered. There wasn't much to do, though. Within a few hours, Spinelli had finished whatever homework the teachers had already sent them home with before they were all taken home in an emergency evacuation. That was mostly due to her mother forcing her to sit at the kitchen table as she did it. Part of her knew that she was going to be thankful for having it out of the way ahead of time, but for right now, it was hours wasted on something she wasn't worried about.

She dragged the phone into her room, the wire flowing under her bedroom door as she put it on her bed. What else to do except call her friends and see what they were up to? They had to be as bored as she was. So.

TJ first. He was the closest, after all. She dialed his number without paying much attention to the buttons. The phone rang and rang until she reached voicemail. Huh. That's weird. Shouldn't they be home what with everything going on? She tried again, only to get sent to voicemail.

Well. That was going nowhere. She hung up and picked up the phone again. Maybe Gretchen will pick up. A day was more than enough for her to get through any school work.

"Hello?"

"Hey, Gretchen what's up?" She asked.

"Oh, hello, Spinelli. Nothing much, just finishing the last of our homework for the year," said Gretchen.

"Geez, Gretch. We get a week off and all you want to do is study."

"I can't help it. There's only so many experiments I had lined up before now, and they're all either finished or I have to go to the library for more information," she said.

"Well, don't burn yourself out, at least. Did you hear anything new about what's going on around town?" Spinelli asked.

"Hmm, no, nothing that wasn't already broadcasted on the news. But shouldn't I be asking that of you? Did you hear anything new from the strange kid that keeps coming to you?"

"Sort of? I snuck out with him yesterday—"

"You did what?! Spinelli, that's dangerous with those things running around! You could've gotten hurt!"

"I know, _mom_. But I'm fine. Besides, if he's running around _chasing_ them he could probably fight one off if anything happened," said Spinelli. She plopped down on her bed, glancing at her window. Just a tree, no weird kid standing on one of its branches. "But he took me out to the woods and showed me some weird stuff that might help us figure all of this out.

"What did you find out?" Spinelli could hear the shuffling of papers and the click of a pen.

"When we were walking, we kept finding these strange symbols carved on fallen down trees. It had a circle, a square, and a diamond, I think. And parts of it looked like it was on fire, kind of like tiny embers when you're trying to put out a campfire, you know what I mean?" She explained. "He said it was a 'portal' or something."

"A 'portal'?"

"Yep. He didn't say much about it after that, just carved an 'X' over it before moving on," said Spinelli. "That happened a couple of times before I snuck back home."

"Well, that certainly is something new," said Gretchen. "I'm not sure what to make of it, however. I'm going to try and do some research on this, but I can't say I've ever read anything resembling this."

"Figured. It's alright, Gretch, don't wear yourself out about it. Take a day to breathe, geez," said Spinelli. "I'll try to get more information about him."

"Alright. Try not to put yourself in too much danger."

"Will try."

"Ashley? I need to use the phone!" Spinelli heard her mother call from downstairs.

"Okay!" She shouted back. "I gotta go. Talk to you later."

##

Kicking something laying on her floor, Spinelli occasionally looked at her window, expecting someone in a black sweat suit to be sitting right outside it. However, as the hours ticked passed, the kid never showed up. She supposed she should be a little happy about it, he had a habit of showing up when it was the least convenient, maybe he was giving it a break.

But part of her was worried. Maybe he was out chasing after those things tonight. He always popped up sooner or later, no matter what. It could be a particularly busy night or something.

. . .

What if he had to face a lot of them tonight? What if he was out numbered?

"He'll be fine," She said to herself. "He's got that other kid with him. Why do I care so much, anyways?"

Rain started to beat against the window as a storm rolled in. That didn't help ease her concern.

##

He didn't show up that night. Or the next. Or the one after that.

It was reported in the news that there has been a sudden decrease in sightings and damage done by the mysterious beasts, which helped put everyone's mind at ease. Maybe these odd occurrences was close to ending, and they could go back to living their normal lives.

That could've been why he didn't stop by lately. If that was the case, he should be stopping by sooner rather than later.

"I need to think about something else," said Spinelli. She laid on her bed, leaning upside down on the edge. "I'm getting cabin fever being stuck in this house all day."

By the time Monday rolled around, the town was given an all clear, and everyone was returning to work or school, though they were all a bit cautious. Spinelli stepped off the school bus and met up with her friends inside.

"Hey, Spin. Hear anything new from that kid?" asked Vince.

"Not much. He only showed up once after school was cancelled," she said. "I talked to Gretchen about it a little bit already."

She shared with the others what she already told Gretchen. They each showed an interest in what she saw, and worry that she would go out, not so much with the kid, but while those monsters were still roaming around freely. But she was safe and uninjured, and that's all that really mattered.

When class begin, Ms. Finster was adamant in catching them all up on the missed assignments. After a long lecture that seemed to even make time slow to a crawl, she handed out a short stack of paper to the class. A good chunk of them were wondering why this wasn't called a quiz, it was certainly more than long enough to be called one. Staying at home for days suddenly didn't look so bad.

Spinelli got to work on hers, like everyone else. Word problems, some problems involving maps and graphs. . .just looking at them made her want to groan in agony. For a while the most she had written down was her name and date. But eventually she found one question that wasn't so hard before moving to the next.

Next to her, however, it looked like TJ having an extremely difficult time with it. Quizzes were never his strong point. Or tests. Or homework. But he never let it make him as agitated as he looked in that moment. He bounced his foot under his desk, while holding his head and one hand and tightly gripping his pencil in the other. And tighter and it might snap in half, it looked like.

Though no one, including her would dare speak a word during one of Ms. Finsters quizzes, she did send him a concerned look. That seemed to stop his fidgeting, but only for a few moments before it started again. Still worried, she let it alone until recess when they could actually talk without the threat of detention looming over their heads.

#

When recess came, the student body was upset to find out that it was another indoor recess, but once they were able to look through the lunchroom windows, none of them were able to make an argument against it. Old Rusty was completely missing. Gone. The damage must have been too much to ever hope to repair, like most of them thought, and for now, the playground was just one large slab of cement. There wasn't much most of them could do out there, anyways, even with all the balls to play with.

"Hey, Teej, what was with you in class?" Spinelli asked. She sat next to him at one of the lunch tables. Like in class, he sat bouncing his foot and holding onto his head, though with her coming over, he quickly tried acting like nothing was wrong.

"Oh, nothing. It's nothing," said TJ. He forced himself to stop fidgeting. "Nothing's wrong."

"It doesn't look like it," she said. "You sure?"

"Y-yeah, I'm sure. It's just my head. It hurts a little. It's been hurting for the last few days and it's bothering me," he said.

"Did you take anything for it?" She asked.

"As many aspirin as the bottle says I can take. It barely did anything," said TJ. "It felt better this morning but now it's acting up again."

"I'm sorry, dude."

"It's alright. . .I'm just gonna lay my head down before it gets any worse. . ."

He folded his arms and laid his head down on the lunch table, doing his best to block out as much light as he could, just as the rest of the gang came over with a board game.

"What's wrong with TJ?" Gus asked.

"His head hurts. He's gonna sit this recess out," said Spinelli. "What game did you get?"

"Monopoly," said Vince. "It was the only one left."

They set up, picked their respective pieces, and started to play as much as they could in the 30 minutes of recess given to them. TJ occasionally peeked out to take a look at the game before burying his head in arms again.

When the bell rang, they packed the game back into its box. Seeing that TJ didn't move, Spinelli figured that he had fallen asleep and started to lightly shake him, though, the second she touched his arm, his hand shot up, tightly gripping her wrist.

"Uh, hey, can you let go, Teej?" She asked, trying to pull her wrist out of his hand. It didn't budge in the slightest. "You're kinda hurting me. . ."

The focused expression on his ace melted away as he realized what he was doing.

"S-sorry, Spinelli. I dunno what happened," said TJ. He let go of her wrist. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. That headache must be getting to you," she said as they walked back to class.

"Yeah. . .must be. . ."

#

The rest of the day went without incident. No evacuations, no emergencies announced, not even another sighting around the city, the news reported. Spinelli found herself in her room again, expecting that kid to show up at her window. She rubbed around the area that TJ had grabbed onto during their first recess. It didn't hurt or was sore anything, no, but it was still a little red. It was weird, though.

She didn't think he was strong enough to grab her wrist as hard as he did. It was hard enough that her hand and fingers went numb for a moment afterwards, and she had a little trouble writing for a few minutes after that.

"Can things around here be normal again?" She asked herself. "I'd appreciate it."

She went to her window, but no kid dressed in black was waiting at her window. The least he could do was say goodbye if he wasn't going to show up anymore. Rude. She opened her window and took a look around the backyard. No sign of him.

"Whatever," she said, closing her window. "I'm not staying up all night waiting. I actually have school tomorrow. Maybe thanks to him. . ."


	7. Chapter 7

That kid didn't show up again for the rest of the week, and Spinelli found herself genuinely concerned. While the sightings of those monsters appeared to have ended, she couldn't bring herself to believe that the kid would just stop showing up without saying much of a goodbye, not after taking time out of his job to visit her so many times.

At home, she'd look out of her window, expecting and hoping that he would show up, just to know that he was okay, but as the days continued to pass, nothing.

"I mean, he knows what he's doing, right?" She asked herself, pacing in front of her window on Friday night, "He can't be in that much trouble. He has help. . ."

She stopped and looked out her window again. Her tree was empty, it's leaves and branches moving with the wind.

"I'm worrying over nothing."

"Pookie, time for bed," her mother said as she peeked into her daughters room.

"'Kay, mom."

#

As her clock read midnight, Spinelli still couldn't fall asleep, as her mind remained preoccupied with the well-being of the strange kid that showed up on her window one day. This was ridiculous! He was fine! Just because he didn't visit her as usual didn't mean that something was wrong!

Still, she couldn't convince herself of that. But it's not like she could go out there looking for him.

"That's crazy," she thought. But really, what other option was there?

But it wasn't like those monster were out, so it couldn't be that dangerous to sneak out anymore, right?

Maybe.

"I can't believe I'm doing this," Spinelli said as she changed out of her pajamas. She listened out for any sign of her parents being awake as she grabbed her baseball bat out of her closet. It wasn't much, but she guessed a few punches wouldn't fair off well against whatever _could_ be out there.

"I swear if I find him I'm going to kill him for making me do this," she said, opening her window.

Carefully, she climbed onto the closet branch to her window before climbing down to the ground. She flipped her hoodie up and headed out of her backyard to the sidewalk. How quiet the streets were in the middle of the night was nothing short of eerie. Being able to hear every little bit of her footsteps against the ground didn't help make her feel safe, and she gripped her bat, ready to start swinging at anything or anyone who was unfortunate enough to pop up. Not a single car on the road, only her on the sidewalk, just her, the buzzing of bugs, and rustling of trees.

"This is creepy," she mumbled. "What the heck am I even doing out here? Am I crazy?"

Rustling from the woods on the opposite street stopped her in her track, and she was quickly ready to start swinging. She waited, ready to attack if needed be. However, that need never came, as the kid stepped out of from between the trees and bushes, wiping his mouth.

"Oh, it's you."

He looked up at the sound of her voice.

"Do you have any idea how worried I've been?! You can't just start showing up to someone's window on a regular basis and disappear without saying anything! For all I know you could've been dead!" She asked.

"Shh."

"Don't _'shh'_ me! I outta knock you out for that!" She said as he approached. "So, where have you been? There hasn't been any sightings on those monsters all week, so everything's fine now, right?"

He paused, signaling for her to stop as he turned, appearing to hear something she couldn't.

"Go home," he said, heading down the street. "Now."

"I'm not going anywhere until you answer my question!" She said. He paused again.

"Go home," he said again. He looked back, and saw that she still stood.

Wordlessly, he picked her up, bridal style, and took off running down the sidewalk, with little effort.

"Let me go!" She said. "I can walk on my own!"

He refused, and continued down the block, carrying her along the way. It took no time at all for them to reach her house and backyard again. He jumped onto the branch outside her window, and finally let her go to climb into her room.

"Do I get an answer _now?_ " She asked. "Where have you been?"

"Out," he said.

"I'm sorry, but no shit, kid," said Spinelli. "You know what I mean. You used to show up all the time, and then you stopped. That worries a person, you know? I didn't know if you were killed or something!"

". . .Sorry."

". . .Yeah, whatever. I guess," she huffed, folding her arms. "So are those thing gone now? The news said there were no more sightings."

He didn't answer, looking back out to the sidewalk. He closed her window and jumped down, leaving her backyard.

Well. At least she got an answer to her question. He was alive doing just fine. But seeing him only left her with more questions than answers

#

"Mom, I'm going over to TJ's house!"

The next morning, Spinelli was ready to get out of the house again without fear of being attacked. And it was more than welcome as she stepped outside after getting her jacket on. Other kids were already out, playing, eager to get some sun now that their recess was limited to what they could do in the lunchroom as the jungle gym gets replaced.

She made the quick trip across the street and knocked on the Detweilers door. It was his older sister Becky who ended up answering. She let her in as she continued to talk away on the phone. After all these years she probably could've come and go as she pleased; their families were each extensions of their own at this point.

"Hey, Teej, you in there?" She asked as she knocked on his bedroom door. Getting no response, she opened his door.

The room was cloaked in darkness as the blinds and curtains were closed. She spotted him, a lump on his bed, completely hidden under the covers.

"You're not sleeping on a Saturday, are you? It's the first time in the while everyone could go out without being worried," Spinelli said. She shook him, though it didn't take much to get him to move. He turned, only peeking out enough from under the cover t expose his eyes.

"Spinelli? What are you doing here?" He asked groggily.

"I should be asking you that. You're usually the one who comes over my house on Saturday," said Spinelli.

"Oh. Sorry, Spin. My head still hurts," he said.

"It's okay. I can over to hang out, but I can leave if you want me to," she said.

"No, it's fine. I'm okay if I don't move," he said, turning over to face her. "What's going on?"

"Remember last week when that kid stopped showing up at my window?" She sat down and leaned against the side of his bed. "I sorta snuck out last night to go looking for him."

"Spinelli that's dangerous! You could've got hurt!" He said, wincing right after.

"I'm fine, Teej. Nothing happened. I actually found him," she said. "He carried me back home as soon as he found me, like some helpless princess. I tried asking him why he went missing but he left before I could get an answer out of him."

"Maybe he was in a rush," TJ suggested. "What if it's still dangerous out there?"

"Then he should've told me that! I didn't know if he was dead or alive! You can't just show up on someone's window on a regular basis then stop all of a sudden," she said, "What am I supposed to think?"

"You sound really worried about him."

"I'm _not!_ "

"You sure?"

"Yes, I'm sure!"

She heard him chuckle as her denials.

"I'm glad you think it's funny, Teej."

"I'm sorry. It just sounds like you have a crush on the guy. And you don't even know what he looks like."

"I do not have a crush on him! I'm not getting a crush on anybody after that baby tooth incident! Can't a kid get worried about another kid showing up at her window while they're chasing freakin' monsters around town?"

"Do you realize how crazy that sounds?"

"Yeah, as soon as I said it," said Spinelli. "This whole thing is so bizarre. I feel like I stepped into the Twilight Zone."

"It's not the first weird thing we've been caught up in," said TJ. "You know?"

"Sure do. I guess I'll head back home and let you relax. You should go get that headache checked out."

"I did. The doctor said it's probably just a migraine," he said.

"A migraine that lasts a week?" She asked. "Whatever. Just get better soon, okay, Teej? Can't have you out of commission now that things are starting to get back to normal around here."

"Sure. If you stop sneaking out at night."

"No promises."


	8. Chapter 8

The building of the new jungle gym as coming along smoothly. Though there was still much to do, as the slide, monkey bars, swings, and top of it still needed to be installed, but the framework was standing proud where Old Rusty used to be, somewhat taunting the kids who were _still_ stuck inside for recess. Hopefully it would be finished sometime this week.

Spinelli walked from the window to the table where the rest of the gang were sitting, and the board game of the day was set up. Something called Kill Doctor Lucky.

"How does this game work?" Vince asked.

"The goal is for one of us to kill Doctor Lucky, as the title suggests. Whomever manages to do so is the winner. We take turns moving through rooms collecting cards, while Doctor Lucky moves on a set path. We can use one of the weapons cards to attempt our murder," Gretchen explained. "Sounds interesting. And a little inappropriate."

"Why would they even have this game in here?" Spinelli asked.

"I have no clue. But it might be interesting to play," said Gretchen.

"I'll give it a try. I've got nothing better to do," Vince said.

"I'll pass. I can't bring myself to enjoy a game where the goal is to commit a murder," said Mikey. "I'll take this recess to work on some poetry."

"I guess I could give it a try," said Gus.

"I'm gonna opt out on this one, guys," TJ said. He folded his arms on the table and laid his head down. "M'head still hurts. . ."

"So did that kid ever show up again? Or is he still missing?" Vince asked as they began the game.

"He still didn't show up at my window, but I found him," said Spinelli. "I sort of snuck out and went looking for him myself."

"Spinelli, that's dangerous!" said Gretchen.

"Yeah, yeah, I know. TJ already gave me lecture about that on Saturday." Spinelli heard a light chuckle from TJ next to her. "I'm fine. I wasn't even out long before I found him. But I couldn't get anything out of him. It was just a waste of time."

"Maybe now that he knows you're worried, he'll show up again, so you won't have to sneak out," said Gus.

"I hope so. I'm getting tired of worrying about a kid whose name I don't even know," she said. "C'mon, let's just focus on the game, I mean to take my mind off this."

And so they did. Like many other students around the lunchroom, they were focused on getting through their board game, eager to get back outside to fresh air and sunshine as soon as possible. There were only so many times a kid could play a board game before they got sick of it, and based on the tension rising in the air over the last week, everyone was reaching their limits.

After her turn, Spinelli waited, not paying much attention as the game moved forward. For a moment she thought about joining TJ in taking a nap. She was no kindergartener, but a nap sounded good right about then, as time seem to tick past slower with each second.

Suddenly, with a groan, TJ sat up and climbed out of his seat.

"You okay there, Teej?" Spinelli asked.

"No," he said with a shake of his head. "I'm not."

He walked away from the lunch table while covering his mouth, towards the double doors that lead to the rest of the school, gaining the attention of a few other students on his way. Right before he reached the doors, he was stopped by none other than Ms. Finster.

"Where do you think you're going, Detweiler?" Ms. Finster asked with her hands on her hips.

"To the bathroom," he asked. "It's kind of an emergency."

"And how do I know you're not going off to cause trouble as usual?"

An answer was given in the form of TJ emptying his stomach on the tiled floor in front of him. Rather than the usual green, or even brown that any kid who has ever been sick was familiar with, it was a distinct red, with swirls of white. Without waiting for a response, he passed Ms. Finster and ran out of the living room. Ms. Finster huffed, still unwilling to admit that she was wrong, and left to find Hank and get the school nurse.

"Woah, he's really sick, huh?" Vince asked, they all looked in the direction that their friend had took off running.

"I suppose it's a safe to assume that we won't be seeing him for the rest of the day. His parents will probably be called to pick him up," said Gretchen. They agreed, and did their best to continue on with the game, now with a new worry on their mind.

And then it hit, like a truck going 100 mph. Just as every kid had experienced chucking their cookies at one point or another, they've also gotten a good whiff of it, probably making them upchuck a second time. It went without saying that it was horrible.

But this.

This reeked of absolute _death_.

The cafeteria was emptied out for that reason alone onto the still in repair playground, though they didn't stay out there longer than it took to walk back to the front of the school and return to class.

#

"Hi, Mrs. Detweiler. Is TJ okay? He kinda upchucked in front of the entire school today."

It went without saying much that one of them should check on their leader after school, just to make sure he was okay. Anyone who threw up blood had to be down for the count at least for a little while, right? Right. So as his friend, they had to make sure that he was at least still alive. It ended up being Spinelli, as she lived right across the street from him.

"Oh, hi Ashley. Yes, TJ will be just fine, he just needs plenty of rest. He won't be coming to school for the rest of the week," said Mrs. Detweiler. "The doctor also told us no visitors, so I'm sorry if there's something you want to tell him, but it's going to have to wait until he gets better."

"That's okay. I just came to check on him," she said. "Can you tell him to get well soon?"

"I will. Get home safe, Ashley."

With that, she stepped off their porch and started on her way home. She did stop, however, on the sidewalk to look up at the window to TJ's room. Luckily, she did find him looking out to wave at her as she left. She waved back before heading home.

#

Even after she snuck out to see him, Spinelli still didn't find him at her window that night. For a kid who was already weird, he seemed dead set on being even more so to show off. She closed her math book the moment she was done solving the last problem and looked at her window again. The wind was still blowing, and lightly raining, but no kid.

It's not like she could go back out and look for him again. She already knew he was fine, so there was no need to go out and check on him. He's fine. She knows this.

"I swear to God this kid had better give me some answers this time," she said, plopping down on her bed.

She waited until hours after dinner, when she could hear both of her parents snoring down the hall. She locked her door, and got dressed, swapping her dress and tights for a pair of jeans, t-shirt, and hoodie. She pulled the hood over her head and grabbed her baseball bat again before climbing out her window.

If the streets were eerie the last time she snuck out, it was ten times worse with the rain added. She remembered the weatherman saying that it was only a light shower overnight, possibly into the morning, so there was no concern of a flash flood. She passed the same spot where he popped out of the bushes, almost expecting him to do the same this time, but he didn't, and she kept walking.

"Can't believe I'm doing this, _again_. If I have to beat the answers out of him, I'm gonna," she said. "He can take a couple of hits. Or a dozen."

She kept walking, keeping an eye and ear out for any sign of the kid. Spinelli was sure she walked for 10 or 15 minutes before anything happened. A sound came from a manhole in the middle of the street. She stopped, watching as the lid was lifted and pushed aside. True to his character, or as much of it as she could get from what she knew about him, the kid climbed out from under the street, carrying that weird pipe along with him.

"Hey!" She called. He jumped in surprise and turned to her. "I'm not done with you!"

He tilted his head as if to say 'Clearly'. He nudged the manhole cover back into its place, and Spinelli wondered for a second exactly how strong you had to be to do that with your foot, and with minimal effort.

She walked over to him, and he leaned away, though that didn't stop her from hitting him with his bat. Any concern about hurting him was put to rest as he barely flinched.

"You're gonna give me some answers, kid, or I'm gonna beat 'em out of ya!" She held her bat, ready to swing again.

As much as she wanted to be seen as a viable threat, it was clear that he wasn't concerned with her hurting him but his posture becoming more lax. He took her hand and led the way towards the nearby woods, but she yanked it out of his grasp.

"I'm not doing this again! You're gonna answer my questions!"

He scratched the back of his head before nodding. Good. She was making progress. He held out his hand for her to take, but she passed, brushing it aside.

"No thanks. I can walk just fine by myself," she said. He shrugged and led the way into the woods.

Though she didn't hold his hand, she stayed close. The tree's didn't help in keeping the path clear, and it was easy to get lost without any daylight to help you see where you were going.

"So is it true? The news says there's no more sightings of those monsters, so they're all gone, right?" Spinelli asked. He shook his head. "Then why are we going through the woods? How do you know there aren't any here right now, hunting us down?"

"I can hear 'em. And smell 'em," he said, spinning the thin metal pole with his fingers. "We're safe."

"If you say so. Is that why you haven't been showing up at my window lately?"

"Mm-hmm."

"See? That's all you had to answer. If you did the other day I wouldn't need to sneak out to find you, kid," said Spinelli. "It's just that me and my friends, we're curious about you, that's all. You can't just show up out of nowhere and disappear. People get worried when that happens. Not me, 'cause I know you can handle yourself. I just had to make sure."

She heard him chuckle.

They continued through the woods, accompanied with the occasional sound of a snapping twig or hoot of an owl. Spinelli felt him grab her arm as he stopped in his tracks, looking behind them. She started to ask why, but he signaled for her to stay quiet. She tried listening out or anything, but aside from the usual woodsy sounds, she heard nothing.

Then, he took her hand and ran, leaving no room for questions, and although she now had plenty more to ask, she wasn't foolish enough to stop him if he felt they had to run.

But they did stop, coming to a screeching halt as one of those monsters cut them off. The ground shook as it landed, almost causing them to lose their footing on the already muddy ground. It stood on its hind legs, towering over the two of them, doing a fantastic job of intimidating them. It snarled, it's hot, steamy breath hitting their faces.

The kid moved to keep her behind him, but that didn't do much to keep her safe, as they felt the ground shake again. Behind them, another one of those monsters arrived, trapping them.

The kid snapped the very tip of the pole he carried and shoved it into Spinelli's hand. A red light embedded into it blinked. Within a few seconds, the two of them were surrounded by a red transparent dome.

"Stay here," the kid whispered to her. He ran out the dome, it making a slight hissing sound as he passed through, though it didn't seem to hurt him at all. As the monster reached down to grab at him, he jumped high out of its reached, and hit it right on the head as he came back down.

At it stumbled, he pressed his pole onto its neck horizontally, keeping it pinned by standing on it. The kid reached to his lower leg, pulling out a hunting knife. However, before he could do anything with it, the other tackled him to the ground, grabbing onto his hoodie and swinging him around, until he was thrown deeper into the woods. The two monsters took off after him.

. . .

. . .

What the hell just happened?!

Spinelli looked at what was shoved in her hand. It was about as wide as a quarter and as thick as a small notebook.

"This must be what's making. . .this," she said, waving to the dome around her.

She walked to the edge, and placed a tentative hand to it. It was solid, and it gave her skin a light buzz, like the static that came off the TV. Unlike the kid who walked through with no problem, she couldn't, and was stuck here until he came back. At least she was guarded from the rain.

But they were throwing him around like a ragdoll. He got a few good hits in, from what she could see from the rain. She hoped he would get back soon.

An ear splitting shriek echoed through the woods, and Spinelli reflexively covered her ears to keep them from hurting. When it stopped, it was followed by two loud thumps a ways off in the distance.

The sound of footsteps and heavy breathing told her it was over, at least for now, and the kid was coming back. As he got closer, it sounded like he was walking with a limp.

"You okay kid? I know you can handle yourself out there, but you were tossed pretty far. I don't care how strong you are, that's gotta hurt," she said, turning to face him.

Once he was back in sight, she stepped back, mouth agape, dropping a small device she was given to hold.

"TJ?"

He look up at her, confusion written all over his face. It was only when he reached up to touch the hood of his jacket and he found that it wasn't there, that he knew that his cover was blown.

"Crap."


	9. Chapter 9

The two of them stared at each other, the sound of rain being the only thing between them. Spinelli stared at him in a mixture of confusion and shock, and TJ looked back with growing exhaustion and uneasiness. He took one step closer to her, and she gripped her bat, ready to start swinging.

"Uh, can you put the bat down, Spin?" TJ asked. "I'm not gonna attack or anything."

"Why should I?" She nearly yelled. "What the hell, TJ?! Why didn't you tell me you were the one doing all this?! Do you have a death wish or something?!"

"I'll answer your questions, but let's get out of the rain, okay?" He asked.

He stepped through the transparent dome and picked up the small piece Spinelli dropped in the mud. With a 'click', it reattached to the rest of the pole, and the dome disappeared with a bubble like 'pop'. He walked past her, limping just as she thought he was a moment ago, clutching his stomach. He paused and looked back at her.

"You coming?"

Hesitantly, she followed.

#

They ended up in a small cave, enough to shelter them from the rain and bunker down in, though that was pretty much all to it. By the time they were out of the rain, it had picked up, turning from a light rain to where it was hard to see very far in.

While Spinelli sat near the front of the cave, TJ walked a bit further in. When he came back, she saw him carrying a few pieces of wood. He joined her, sitting at the edge of the cave. Silently, he arranged the pieces of wood in a pile, keeping on in his hand. He took a deep breath, and Spinelli could see a red-orange glow coming from his chest, before he let out a steady breath of fire he used to start a fire to warm them.

Spinelli wanted to say she was surprised. She also wanted to say she wasn't.

"Questions?" TJ asked, looking through a backpack from deeper in the cave.

"So you just do this in your spare time, huh? Running around, fighting monsters?" She asked harshly.

"I mean, technically," said TJ.

"I can't believe this."

"Feel free not to. That would do me a _huge_ favor." He took a few things out of his bag. A small container, a towel, what looked like a large thick white sponge.

"Are you crazy?! You could've been killed out there!" Spinelli shouted at him.

"I'm fine."

"No, you're not if you think doing all of this is okay!"

"It's fine, Spinelli," he insisted. "See?"

He leaned back against the wall of the cave. Now that he wasn't slouching and there was light helping her see, Spinelli was able to see the piece of wood that was punctured in the left side of his stomach. It wasn't particularly big, but it didn't have to be to cause damage.

"What do you mean 'see'? That's what I'm talking about, Teej!" She said. "You need to go to a hospital!"

"No thanks, it's fine. I'm not in the mood to become a science experiment. Just gimme a minute. . ."

He tore his hoodie and shirt for better access, and wrapped the towel around the piece of wood, pausing for a moment to let it soak up some of the blood. He touched it with his free hand, but winced. Taking a deep breath, he grabbed onto it, and with two yanks, it was out, and he covered the wound with a towel.

"Only 2 maybe 3 inches," said TJ. "It felt deeper."

"You say that it's nothing," said Spinelli.

"Compared to some other stuff, this isn't. You should've seen some of the other injures I came home with," he said. "One time, one of those things got a hold of my arm and broke it. The bone was sticking out of the skin. It was crazy."

" _You're_ crazy! Who _does_ this?!"

"Me." He looked under the towel. Placing it aside, he replaced it with the white sponge. "I guess I should start from the beginning, huh?"

"Yeah, that would help," said Spinelli. "I've got about a hundred questions and I don't know which one to ask first."

"Makes sense."

The fire between them crackled and popped. Spinelli watched him take out that knife he pulled out earlier from the strap around his lower leg, along with another, though she could see two more left untouched on his inner leg. He placed them just enough outside the cave for them to be washed by the rain. Now that her eyes adjusted to the light, she was able to see a set of deep horns growing out of the sides of his forehead, curling around, resembling a pair of rams horns, even though they were stubby little things.

"Would you believe me if I told you that Demons are real?" He asked.

"Do I have a choice?" She asked. "So what, you're a Demon?" He nodded.

"An Incubus, actually. That's why I can't go to hospital, not that I really need to," said TJ. "They're going to freak out if a kid comes in with horns. People aren't exactly supposed to know Demon's are real. I never even meant for you to find out, but that didn't turn out so well."

He unscrewed the top to the small container, exposing the light blue goo inside. He scooped some up, and covered the wound on his abdomen. He hissed at soon as it made contact, inadvertently unsheathing a pair of set of fangs.

"You have fangs, too?" Spinelli asked.

"Mm-hmm."

"I don't get it. You never had any of that before!"

"I didn't have the fangs until earlier today, and my hat hid the horns. It's kinda complicated but I guess you can say it's magic?" He said. He dug through his bag and pulled out the infamous red cap. "It hides the horns, but it's not strong enough to hide the fangs, so I need to pick up a new one to hide everything."

"Is that why you're not coming to school for the rest of the week?" She asked.

"Yes and no. I'm staying home because I need to keep my fangs out to let the sheaths heal up. That's what was going on in the lunch room today," he said. "I didn't throw up, my fangs dropped, and it didn't help that there were a couple of cysts in there. I was trying to get to the bathroom so that I wouldn't bleed all over the lunch room floor, sorry about that, it probably smelled like death. . .If I want it to heal, I shouldn't keep them hidden."

"I still don't like it, TJ."

"Huh?"

"You're out there fighting monsters that can kill you! How am I supposed to be okay with that?" She asked.

"I wouldn't be out there if I couldn't handle myself. Besides, it's part of my job," said TJ. "They wouldn't let me out here if I wasn't trained or anything. And I'm not empty handed, look."

He grabbed one of the knives he set out in the rain and passed it to Spinelli. She took it, and looked at the blade. It was carved out of a blueish rainbow opal. The handle, though it looked like wood, it felt like stone. She had to admit, it was kind of pretty, for something that's supposed to be used to kill monsters.

"Opal burns them, and the handle sends out 200,000 volts of electricity, enough to kill most and at least stun the rest," he said.

"Geez. Is it even safe for me to hold this thing?" Spinelli asked.

"Oh yeah, it's safe. It's not active, so it won't hurt you," he said. "I have that one, and three more. And this."

He picked with that thin black pole that he always carried around.

"I know it doesn't look like much, but I can do a lot of damage with this. Just give it a twist, and. . ." He twists it in the middle, and on one end of the pole, four sharp prongs stuck out. "That pops out. I don't use that part a lot but it helps when I do. I just use this thing for hitting. Like a bat."

"I still don't like it," said Spinelli. "You're my friend, I don't want you to get hurt. You already got a branch through the stomach!"

"Yeah, but that's nothing. I'll be fine by tomorrow, I promise!" He said. "I dunno what I can do to convince you I'm telling the truth. . ."

Silence settled in between them. Spinelli sat with her knees brought up to her chest with her arms wrapped around them, and an annoyed expression on her face. TJ moved to sit next to her and patted his knees, at a loss for what to say.

"Spin?" He asked, poking her shoulder. She ignored him, looking away. " _Spiiin._ Spinellllli. Are you mad? Please don't be mad."

"M'not mad," she mumbled.

"I know this looks bad, but Demons are durable like you wouldn't believe."

"I don't think I can believe any of this, Teej. My best friend is a monster boy," said Spinelli. She reached over and touched done of his horns. It felt like she would expect bone to feel like, and she could feel the numerous ridges that ran along it. "Weird. So, what, do you have a tail, too? Are you hiding wings under the hoodie? It would match the whole demon look."

"I don't have wings yet, but those should start to come in any time now. I'm not looking forward to it; everyone says it feels like your back is killing you. But I do have a tail under my clothes. It's sprained, though, so I'm not supposed to wave it around."

Spinelli rubbed the sides of her forehead. "I need a day for all this to soak in, TJ. Maybe a week. Maybe a month, or two."

"That's fine. It's getting really late, anyways," he said. "You should get home."

He dug through his bag, pulling out a replacement hoodie and switching it with the damaged one he was still wearing. He extinguished the fire and pulled the hood up, hiding his face again. By now, the rain had slowed to a light drizzle again. Once his weapons were put away, he led the way out of the cave and woods.

"At least your parents must be worried," Spinelli said once they reached a sidewalk.

"Ha, my dad is pushing me out here the hardest. I'm pretty sure that unless I'm dying he won't let me stay home, not even for one night," said TJ. "Oh. . .you probably mean my parents _up here_. That's. . .a long story. I'll tell you more tomorrow, if you're still interested."

" _If._ If I'm still interested, like this isn't the biggest secret anyone could have!'

"Yeah, you have a point there."

By the time they reached her backyard, the rain completely stopped.

"Need any help getting back in your room?" He asked.

"Just c'mon." Said Spinelli.

He picked her up, bridal style, and jumped up to the branch outside her window. He helped her keep her balanced as she climbed back into her window.

"What are you gonna do now? Head back home?" Spinelli asked.

"In a little bit. I gotta got back and get rid of the bodies," he said. "I'm pretty sure there's no more of them running around out there tonight, I just need to clean up.'

"You said that before we got attacked, too," she said.

"But I'm extra sure this time. I'll be home in 30 minutes, tops," he said. "I promise, okay?"

"You better. I guess I'll see you later, Teej," she said.

"I'll see you later, Spin. Oh, and one more thing. It would mean a lot to me if you kept this secret between the two of us," he said. "I can't have this sort of thing getting out."

"I don't think the others would believe me if I told them. But sure, I won't tell anyone," said Spinelli. "They'd call me crazy, anyways."

"Thanks Spinelli. Good night."

With that, he jumped out of the tree. He turned and waved before heading out of her backyard. Spinelli watched him until he was out of sight.

How was she supposed to sleep after finding out one of her friends was a demon boy? Maybe this was some bizarre dream.

. . .

A pinch later and she was sure that it was indeed not a dream.


	10. Chapter 10

Having to act as if she didn't find out her friend was a monster boy the previous night turned out to be surprisingly easy, Spinelli found out, though, it helped that she was a little too tired to look like she had a secret to keep. The desk next to hers was empty, as TJ was staying home for the rest of the week. Or so he says; at this point, she was taking everything he said with a grain of salt. The others didn't think much of it when she told them that he wasn't showing up until Monday.

As the sun set, she waited, glancing over at her window every few minutes. What she learned last night didn't do much in the way of swaying her to believe that TJ was in no danger. He could at least check in to let her know that he was still _alive_.

"Out there getting stabbed in the stomach and breaking bones on a regular basis like it's nothing," she mumbled.

His parents had to be against this, right? Any good parent would be. Especially his mom. As much as he tried to brush it off and hide it, Spinelli, as well as the others, knew he was a bit of a mama's boy. She had to be worried about him out there every night, and TJ wouldn't go, or even try to sneak out, I she didn't give him permission to, right? Right.

"Just more questions to ask him. . ."

As her bed time came and went, she laid in bed the opposite way, closer to the window, just in case. However, she ended up dozing off not long after.

_Tap-Tap_

_Tap-Tap_

_Rapa-Tap-Tap_

_. . ._

_BANGBANGBANG_

Spinelli was jolted out her sleep at the sudden noise. Her heart raced from the surprise, as her eyes jolted around her room for the source. Did someone break into the house? She didn't hear anyone moving downstairs.

_Tap-Tap._

The window. She looked, and there he was, sitting on the branch, hood down, and with a smile on his face, waving as if he didn't almost give her a heart attack.

"You couldn't think of a better way to wake me up?!" She asked, leaning over the open window.

"I tried knocking quietly, but you didn't budge," said TJ. "Did you know you sleep like a rock?"

"I've been told," said Spinelli, "Well, now that I know you're still alive, I can sleep peacefully. G'night."

"Wait! I wanna take you somewhere," he said. "Don't you wanna come?"

"It's not out hunting those monsters, is it? As much as I'm worried about you don't your job, I'm not in a rush to get caught between two of those things like last night," said Spinelli. "I'll pass."

"No, I'm all done with that tonight. I checked and double checked, and I didn't get hurt this time," said TJ. "I wanna show you my home."

"I've been to your house, Teej."

"I mean my _real_ home. Where I'm from," he said. "It's fine if you don't want to, I just thought I'd offer."

"Maybe another night, TJ. I'm still tired from being up so late last night," said Spinelli, "I'm glad you're not hurt, though."

"Oh, okay. That's fine. G'night, Spinelli."

He jumped out of the tree, waving goodbye before heading away.

#

A full nights rest wasn't enough to keep some students awake through one of Finsters lectures. Even the threat of not getting a passing grade if they didn't write down every single word that came out of her mouth wasn't enough to keep some of them from dozing off. Spinelli gave up on getting more than a C or D sometime during the first month of the school year. There were other things worth doing than listening to every single word that came out of Ms. Finsters mouth.

Her notebook was a mixture of notes and doodles, some of animals, some of other students, some of random shapes haphazardly shaded. Like most other days, she was focusing on a lazy doodle of her and her friends. Nothing too impressive, but she was really thinking about getting a sketchbook if she was going to practice this much.

At this exact moment, she was working on the twirl of one of TJ's horns. She wasn't that good in drawing twists and curls and the like, but that wasn't the point.

"He still looks weird with it," she thought. It was going to take some getting used to.

#

When night came and her parents were in bed, Spinelli waited at the foot of her bed, fully dressed and ready to leave. It was easier staying up and waiting when she wasn't up the night before. Besides, Ms. Finster was being extra generous with the amount of homework she gave them that day, and she needed to stay up to get it all done.

A knock on her window pulled her out of bed, and she opened her window, letting in the cool night air.

"You're early," said Spinelli. "You usually show up like an hour later."

"I know but, um, I got done early," TJ said hastily, Spinelli noticed. He tightly gripped the tree branch and slouched. "You wanna come tonight?"

"Yeah, sure. But are you okay, dude?" She asked. "You look like you're hurting."

"I am, I am. I need to get home," he said. "Move over."

"Um, okay? But aren't we supposed to be going to your place?" She asked. She stepped aside, letting him climb inside. He took a moment to lean backwards, cracking his back. She cringed when she heard his spine pop. "You okay?"

"Yes and no. We can get home from here, I just need a door. . .Or something flat. . ."

He patted his pockets until he found what he was looking for, a piece of chalk. Spinelli watched as he walked to her closet and shut the door. With the chalk, he drew a large triangle, then a vertical line going through it, and ended with a half circle drawn on the left side. It flashed an eerie green.

"Alright, let's go," he said, opening the door. Her clothes were no longer there. Instead, it was replaced by a long dark tunnel.

"What the hell did you do to my closet?" Spinelli asked.

"Relax, it'll be fine after we go inside," he said. "You still coming?"

Spinelli huffed, and followed him inside. Once inside, he shut the door and erased the drawing with a few swipes of his sleeves before leading the way. The path was only illuminated by the occasional blue and purple gem imbedded in the rock. She ahead of her watch TJ as he walked ahead of her, with one hand on the wall and the other holding onto his lower back. Probably the reason he got done early tonight, she figured. Hopefully his back hasn't been slashed into shreds.

They didn't walk for long until they reached another door. Opening it, they entered. . . .

Another room. A bedroom, not too much bigger than TJ's room back at home. Hardwood floors, a bed, dressers, desk, bookshelf, wardrobe, and window.

"This is your place?" Spinelli asked.

"Mm-hmm. Sorry it's hot. It doesn't bother me but I'll turn on the air conditioning," he said.

She looked at the bookshelf, filled with books titled in some language she didn't understand, with the occasional one in English.

"Who needs books this thick?" She mumbled.

"My dad is just as heavy on me studying as he is on me fighting," TJ answered.

He reached under his desk to a small fridge, pulling out a pink apple-sized fruit. Tossing it behind him, he caught it with his tail.

"Do you have any free time?" Spinelli asked. "Your dad sounds like a tyrant."

"Kinda, but he just wants the best for me," he said, taking off his hoodie. "It's nothing I can't handle."

"If you say so, Teej," she said. "What's that?"

"Bogo fruit. It tastes like the worst thing in the world but it's a great painkiller," he said. "I really need it tonight."

He took three big bites, cringing at the taste before forcing himself to chew. Spinelli looked out the window. The room they were in had to be in a tower, given how high up they were. On the ground she what looked like a giant obstacle course. A little ways in the distance she could see a few buildings, as well as a river of lava.

"What was with your back?" she asked. "It looked like it was hurting you."

"It's nothing, I just landed on it weird," he said. "It'll be fine. It's not like my wings are coming in."

"How would you know?"

"I'd barely be able to move, and standing up would be impossible."

She hummed and continued to enjoy the sight. A river of lava. That can't be safe. Or maybe it was; it wouldn't be the most surprising thing Spinelli learn in the last few days.

"Did I miss anything at school?" TJ asked.

"Nah. Same old, same old. Nothing's been happening since we've been stuck inside for recess," she said. "The jungle gym is almost done."

"I saw. You think we'll get back to normal recess, soon?"

"Looks like it. If not by the end of the week, then by Monday," said Spinelli. "Everyone's tired of being stuck inside."

He stood up straight, and looked towards the door. Spinelli looked back, but saw nothing different from just a minute ago.

"Hey, Spin?"

"Yeah?"

"Do you mind hiding under the bed for a minute?" He asked. "Or the closet? Or anywhere, really."

"Why?"

"Because as much as want to show you where I'm from, I can't let anyone actually see you," said TJ. "And I can hear someone coming. I'm pretty sure it's—no, it's definitely my dad. C'mon."

He lead her to another closet door on the opposite wall.

"I'll be back in a minute, okay?" He said as he opened the door. "I'll be right back."

"Whatever."

"Thanks, Spin, I owe you one."

With that, the door was closed, and she was left in the dark.

"Is there a light, at least?" She mumbled as she felt the wall next to the door. Her fingers brushed over what felt like a light switch, and flipped it. Instead of a room filled with clothes, she found that she was in a room filled to the brim with weapons. Either hanging on the wall or laying in some black display case, there had to be enough to supply an army.

"How many knives does one person need?" She asked, looking in one of the cases. "You only have two hands. . ."

These knives were a lot shorter than the ones she saw the other night. The blade was only slightly longer than the handle, and was a little curved. She moved to another case. The top to this one was open. While a few things looked to be missing, there were still quite a few things inside. Like that pole he carried with him, there were smaller one inside.

"So does he just stick these together, or. . ."

Spinelli grabbed two and touched the ends to each other, and they connected with a snap. She tried pulling them apart again, but no luck.

". . .He'll fix it," she said.

She gave it one more try with a twist. Two sets of blades shot out on one end, one of the blades slicing into the palm of her hand. She dropped it and held her hand, hissing at the pain. She looked at the cut, and it was already bleeding, but she couldn't tell how deep it was

"Hey, Spin, sorry I took so long," TJ said, opening the closet door. "What's the matter?"

"I cut myself on one of your stupid weapons!" She said. "Who needs this many, anyways?!"

"Half of these I'm still practicing with, and few of them my dad wants to learn to use just 'cause of family tradition," he said. "Can I see?"

She held her hand for him to see. He gave it a quick look over, pinching and spreading the skin around it.

"Oh, that's nothing, I can fix that," said TJ. He grabbed a small toolbox from the corner, and the two of them sat on the carpeted floor. "It only hurts so much because it's on your palm. I'd rather take 10 cuts on my arm than one on the palm of my hand."

"What'd your dad want to talk about?" Spinelli asked.

"Just about how things have been going up at Third Street, nothing special," he said. He dabbed a cotton round with rubbing alcohol and worked on cleaning the cut. "He wants me to get it done faster, and I tried explaining why it's taking so long, but he's not having any of it. As always."

"What _are_ those things anyways?" She asked.

". . .You can call 'em Werewolves, I guess. They're not like the ones you see in movies or anything. They're a lot bigger and don't turn into humans or anything, but can do a lot of damage. We normally have a handle on them and keep them down here, but sometimes they find a way to sneak out."

"And why would they?"

"Because they like the taste of Human meat," he said. "I don't think they've eaten anyone this go around. They only like coming out at night, and everyone's been staying inside. I need to stitch this cut up. I dunno how well this stuff works on humans, but it worked well enough when I used with my hat still on."

"So as long as everyone doesn't go out at night, they should be fine, right?" Spinelli asked.

"Right. Unless the ones who don't care about sunlight somehow get out but that's never happened, so I wouldn't worry 'bout it."

She watched as he thread a needle, and set it on fire with a single breath.

"Ready?" He asked. "Or do you want some ice to help numb it a little?"

"I can take a puny needle, Teej. Did you forget who you're talking too?" She asked.

"Nope, sorry. Spinelli, the toughest girl on the playground, the one everyone knows not the mess with, unless they want to get to know Madame Fist up and personal."

"Damn right."

"Got it. Just making sure."

Giving the cut one more look over, he began stitching the wound shut. She winced, but held back on any 'ow's' slipping out. After one more tug and a quick not, it was completely closed.

"There, all done," he said. "I'm just gonna put some cream on it and wrap it up. If you wanted to learn how to use some of this stuff, just ask; I'll teach you. It's dangerous to mess with this stuff without knowing what you're doing."

"I'll keep that in mind," said Spinelli. "You can arm an army with all this stuff. You've got knives, swords, some stuff on chains. . .I'm almost surprised you don't have a freakin' gun!"

"Guns are just for show. We don't really use 'em," said TJ. "Plus with how fast the things we're after move, a bullet that only goes straight is pretty much useless next to knives you don't have to reload. And we gotta get close to them anyways."

"And your parents are okay with you going out and doing all of this? The ones back at Third Street?"

"Mary and Henry? Nah, they don't like it. Especially mom. If it was up to her, I wouldn't do it at all," said TJ as he wrapped her hand in a bandage. "But they know it's my job, so they sort of accept it."

"Are they demons, too?"

"Nope. They're 100 percent human. They sort of adopted me, I guess? It's a long story."

"I've got time," she said.

The sound of a bell interrupted their conversations. It wasn't to unlike the bell at school that signaled lunch or recess, though it did sound like whatever bell was making it was very large.

"What's that?"

"End of classes bell," he said. "Everyones either heading back to their rooms or going to hang out somewhere. C'mon, you can see it from my window."

They left the closest, Spinelli somewhat happy to be out of a room filled with weapons that could be used to kill. Looking out the window, she saw what had to be hundreds of students filing out of nearby buildings, some of them gathering in small and large groups, others keeping to themselves.

"It doesn't look that different from our school," said Spinelli.

"It's not that different. Still got friends and grades and rules. Just like any other school," he said.

"So do you have another group of friends here or something?" She asked.

"Nah."

"Really?"

"Really really. You guys are the closest friends I've got. There are people I talk to and hang out with, but I wouldn't call them my friends," he said. "My dad sort of scares them away. He only wants me to talk with people he thinks I should have 'connections' with."

"Your dad is way too strict."

"Mm-hmm."

"He treats you like you're a little adult and not a kid! When are you supposed to just goof off and have fun? Is your mom okay with him being that strict?"

"I dunno. I never met her," he said. "I've asked dad about her, but he never gives me any straight answers."

". . .Oh. Sorry, dude."

"It's fine. I'm used to it by now, so it doesn't bother me that he's so strict," said TJ. "Besides, most of the time I can meet his high standards. Top grades, always dressing well, that junk."

"And when you don't?"

". . . .I get punished. But that almost never happens."

"Almost."

"Yeah. Almost," he mumbled. "But you wanted to know about how I got adopted by two humans instead of just living here right?

"Eleven years ago, my parents, the ones at Third Street, Mary and Henry, they were trying to have another baby, but were having a lot of trouble, I guess. Then my dad showed up at their doorstep holding me. He offered me to them to have and take care of, but that I was a little demon baby. He explained that until I was 8 I would look like a normal human kid, but then the tail would come in, and that he would occasionally stop by to take me back and train me, but that I would always come home. My mom held me once and she said that she knew she wanted to keep me. So they did. Now I just go back and forth between them."

"Wow. You never know who your neighbors are."

"Mm-hmm."

"So that's the case for every other demon kid?" She asked.

"Pretty much."

"Wait, why don't they just get grown-ups to do the job instead of freakin' _kids?_ Do they just not give a fuck?" Spinelli asked. "I mean I get you all are strong but what kind of parents send their kids on the front line of a fight?"

"They used to, but it's harder to hide a grown-up than a kid. With grown-ups they had to have a job and pay bills and junk, but with a kid, all they have to do is go to school," he said. "Plus we run a lot faster and are harder to catch."

"Sounds like garbage."

"Probably."

Silence settled between them. Spinelli turned away from the window, leaning against the wall and getting another good look of the room. Her eyes landed on the bookshelf again, filled to the brim with thick books that would probably make Gretchen jealous. Not a single comic book in sight. Now the chest of comic books he had in his room back at Third Street made a lot more sense.

"Have you read all those books?" She asked.

"Most of them," he said.

"What's in them, anyways?"

"Some math, some history, some reading, some science. Just the usual school subjects," he said.

She yawned, and caught something moving in the corner of her eye. She looked and saw TJ's tail lazily wagging. It was the first time she saw the thing. It was dark red, and the end was tipped with a flat triangle, the typical devils tail use in cartoons and Halloween costumes.

She reached out and grabbed it, not expecting much of a reaction, but that wasn't quite the case. He let out a choked sound before covering his mouth.

"Spinelli, can you let go of my tail, please?" TJ asked.

"Does it hurt?" She asked. He shook his head, and she could see a prominent blush rising on his cheeks.

"N-no, it doesn't. But can you let go, anyways?" He asked. She let go, and watched him wrap it around his waist under his clothes. "Thanks, Spin."

"Yeah, sure, whatever," she said. "What was that all about?"

"Nothing, it's nothing," he said. "It's getting late. You should get home so you won't fall asleep in class tomorrow."

#

Spinelli followed him back through the strange tunnel in his closet. She yawned; getting to sleep sounded nice right about now. She didn't know how much time passed since she came here, but she hoped it wasn't enough that she couldn't get enough sleep. Last thing she wanted was a detention because she fell asleep in class.

She spotted his tail out again. She figured that he either forgot about what happened a few minutes ago or wasn't doing it consciously. Either way, she was still curious about what the big deal was.

"You really aren't going to tell me what the deal is with your tail is?" She asked. "After everything else you told me tonight?"

". . .Yep. We keep it under our clothes for a reason," said TJ. He wrapped it under his clothes again. "If you never grabbed it again, I'd love that, Spin."

"If it hurts you could just _tell_ me, you know."

"I know, but it doesn't," he said. "We're here."

He pushed opened the door at the end of the tunnel, and was greeted with the sight of her bedroom. Her bed never looked more inviting.

"You going to bed now? Or do you have more work to do?"

"Nah, I'm heading to bed, too. It's been a while since I had a good nights sleep with all this crazy stuff happening," he said. "G'night, Spinelli."

"'Night, Teej."

He waved goodbye before closing her closet door and disappearing.


	11. Chapter 11

Old Rusty. The shining beckon in the torture known as school to much of the student body. How many kids have climbed and swung and slid down their precious jungle gym? How many grown-ups in town held fond memories of playing on the structure? Who knows? But what the students of Third Street Elementary school did know on Friday was that Old Rusty was no more.

In its place was another jungle gym towering over them. Built with two slides instead of the usual one, more than enough colorful plastic coated bars for them to climb onto and through, and brand new swings.

All in all, it wasn't too bad of a replacement. Old Rusty will be missed, truly, but time moved forward. Besides, it was called Old _Rusty_ for a reason.

" _Finally_! One more day in the lunch room and I was going to go crazy," said Vince. "How about a round of 4 on 1 basketball?"

"Sounds great Vince, but after waiting this long, I'm itchin' to get back on the jungle gym," Spinelli said.

"I feel the same way, but it's apparent that so does the rest of the student body," Gretchen pointed out. Like she said, students were clamoring to get on the new jungle gym after being stuck indoors for so long. They couldn't blame them, but it did make climbing on look more dangerous than climbing a jungle gym should be.

"We could get Mikey to bulldoze through the crowd," said Spinelli.

"Spinelli, you can't use me to harm my fellow students," said Mikey.

"You wouldn't be hurting them, big guy. It's just pushing them with enthusiasm," she said. "Besides, if you don't, Gus is gonna get crushed in there."

"I-I don't wanna get crushed," said Gus. "My glasses were broken twice already this month. One more time and I'm gonna get in trouble."

"C'mon, Spinelli, let's just wait until the excitement wears off," said Vince. "Even if you did get on there's no space to move!"

"Whatever. Let's just get a ball before more kids think of the same thing," she mumbled.

It was a good thing they did, as other kids got the same idea pretty soon. Playing on the new jungle gym was a lot less fun when there was no way to move if you got on it. With one of the best balls on the playground, they enjoyed a game of basketball.

Which lasted about ten minutes before they noticed that the jungle gym was free of any kids. Those who were on the jungle gym a moment ago was standing around it, looking upwards, some pointing their fingers as if nobody knew what they were staring at already. When the five of them looked to see what the big deal was.

Spinelli made a mental note to knock some sense into that boy.

"Hey look, it's your boyfriend, Spin," Vince joked.

"Shut up, Vince."

Standing on the very top of the new jungle gyms tower was TJ, dawned in his all black outfit, complete with the hood pulled up, obscuring any view of his face and anyone figuring out who he was. It was a little odd seeing him out during the day and not the night, Spinelli thought. When he spotted her, he waved, as if his sudden appearance was anywhere close to the norm. She reluctantly waved back.

He casually jumped down from the jungle gym, landing without any problems. The crowd parted as he walked through and over to the five of them.

"I've never seen you during the day, kid. Is something up?" Spinelli asked, doing her very best acting. He shook his head. "Oh. Well, these are my friends I told you about. There's one more but he's out sick. Guy's this the kid who keeps coming to my window after chasing those monsters every night."

"So this is the kid, huh? You must be pretty brave to do that," said Vince. "Nice to meet, ya."

He gave a quick salute in response. He quickly got the attention of other kids, who came over and watched, curious as to who this kid was. There was nothing distinctive about their clothing, except that it was all black. He was quickly bombarded with questions, "can I get an autograph?" "What's your name?" "Take off the hoodie!" and the like. Those went most ignored as he opted for jumping onto and sitting on top of the monkey bars, looking down at the crowd.

"If you don't like crowds, you shouldn't have come to school," said Spinelli. "Kind of a bad place to come to if you don't like being around a lot of people."

He reached down with one hand, grasping onto the back of her jacket and pulled her up to him without an issue, sitting her next to him.

"Wow, really, dude?"

"Hey, what makes _her_ so special?" Someone from the crowd asked. He leaned over and whispered to her.

"Say it's because you're the coolest," TJ whispered.

"Are you serious?" She asked.

"100%."

"He says it's because I'm the coolest," Spinelli said with a roll of her eyes. TJ gave a thumbs up to confirm it. "Why are you even here? You never come out unless it's night."

"I'm bored, plus I need to look under the school," he whispered. "I just woke up like an hour ago. I might not make it to your room tonight, just a heads up."

With that, he stood on the monkey bars before jumping back down and walking away from the crowd. They all watched him stop in front of a manhole cover. He kneeled down and pulled off the lid without an issue. It hit the pavement with a loud metallic 'thud', making it clear how heavy it was. He climbed inside, and put the cover back on.

"Well, that was interesting," said Gretchen.

"Don't manhole covers weigh 50 pounds?" Gus asked.

"Actually they weight between 90 and 120 pounds, Gus." Gretchen said.

"How strong do you have to be to lift stuff that heavy?"

The crowd dispersed, going back to enjoying their recess. It took nearly half of recess for the excited crowd to start clearing off of the new jungle gym as the excitement of it wore off. The five of them were able to climb on and enjoy it during that recess. What had happened five minutes into it was almost forgotten by everyone on the playground. Spinelli included.

That was, until, a loud metallic bang echoed throughout the playground. Everyone looked toward the source; the same manhole that the mysterious kid so casually climbed down. The lid landed on the ground, and the same kid was climbing out in a rush. He looked back down into the hole, before turning and rushing towards the jungle gym.

"Is something the matter?" Spinelli asked as she hung upside down off the monkey bars.

"Everyone needs to get inside, _now,"_ he told her. "If you can do that for me, that'd be great."

"Did you find something down there?"

"Yeah. Can you tell everyone to get inside the school? I don't think there's a lot of time-"

An earsplitting roar was heard, causing everyone on the playground, and those who happened to be anywhere near the school to stop and cover their ears to save their ability to hear. The ground underneath them shook, knocking some of the younger kids off their feet. Once the rumbling stopped, just a few feet from where TJ was standing, a claw broke through the pavement. It was large, covered in dirty white fur, with claws that looked long and sharp enough to cut though anything. It sunk back into the ground, but not before taking a sizable chunk of the ground along with it.

No one had to be told to start heading for the school.

While everyone headed away from the playground, he headed towards the hole. The ground continued to tremble on and off, making running difficult. Spinelli looked back while heading inside, and saw him crouching in front of the hole, a little too casually.

But at this point, this was just everyday work for him, wasn't it? As worried as she was, there wasn't much she could do to help, except for staying out of the way for him to do his job.

"Alright, big fella, I know you're down there," TJ mumbled. He pulled out one of the four opal knives he kept strapped, and held it high, ready to throw it down once he had a good sighting on the beast. Or beasts. There was probably more than one. As always. "C'mon. There's like 200 tasty human kids up here for you to eat, most of them can't even run that fast, and I know you're hungry. You're not gonna get any of 'em down there."

His answer came in the form of one of them clawing their way out the hole, making it larger and exposing more of the sinkhole underneath. Getting a clear shot, he stabbed the beast right between the eyes, sending it falling back into the hole. Seconds later, bolts of electricity shot out, arching over and licking the pavement.

#

Though they were in a little bit of danger, at least, this was a chance to see some excitement, to watch the mystery kid do what he does every night was enough for them to watch at the window, excited to get a good view.

"You think he's gonna be okay out there?" Gus asked.

"Of course. He must've done this hundreds of times, right, Spinelli?" Vince asked.

"Huh? Oh, yeah. He'll be fine," she said, watching as three of those thing climbed out of the ground, easily out numbering him. But he dealt with that before. She was there when he dealt with two of them, so three couldn't be that much harder. She hoped.

The teachers shouted at them to get away from the windows. Before they were moved, Spinelli saw TJ back away from the monsters, reaching for the pole on his back.

#

That one knife barely did anything but stun the first one, TJ noted as he saw the knife was still embedded in the middle of its head, blood trickling out of it. So that's one weapon completely useless. Maybe if he aimed for their chest? But that meant ducking and diving to get under them, and he might not be able to hit upward with enough force to actual get the knife through. Unless he could get them to fall on their backs, but there weren't any hills around to try that with.

"I'm thinking about this too much," he said, grabbing the pole attached to his back.

One of them roared and lunged towards him, baring its claws and fangs, the others following right after. He swung, hitting the first one and sending it to the ground, a metallic echo resounding through the playground, but the second one was able to tackle him, sending him flying backwards. He landed on his back, the pavement having none of the cushion that dirty did, he found out immediately.

He scrambled to his feet just moments before another monster landed on top of him. A twist of the pole, and an axe-like blade popped from the top. In a swift ache, he landed a hit on the back of the monster that he barely dodge. It slumped, falling to the ground. He tugged at it to get it free, but didn't have enough time to try more than twice before he was swiped at, only stopping when he slammed into the window of the cafeteria. He didn't even hit the ground, he was held up when a werewolf pinned him to the glass with his paw.

"Dad's gonna be mad if I come home with another injury," was his first thought. "That's another five hours in the training room. 'No son of mine is weak enough to get injured like this', he says. I hate the training room. He always turns it up to the highest setting. 'Easy mode is for the weak'. I'm too old for this."

The pop and snapping as a crack formed and spread across the glass brought him out of his thoughts. He pushed back, but that only caused the glass to fracture more. He could hear the students on the other side (" _why are they still here?!"_ He thought.), shouting, and the beginning few steps of them finally leaving the lunch room to get deeper inside the school.

He grabbed the monsters muzzle and pried it open. He took a deep breath and fire streamed from his lungs down the monsters throat, first a hot orange, then a blazing blue. The monster cried, letting go of his head and stumbling back, shaking and collapsing in pain. TJ coughed and wheezed, puffs of smoke coming out of his mouth. Orange and red fire he could do no problem, but blue fire was still new to him. Blue fire was _hotter_ , and took a larger lung capacity to use efficiently. Best case scenario, he just gets a sore throat. Worst case, he loses his voice for a while.

He ran to the Werewolf he embedded his weapon into. He yanked it free, but the monster under him began to stir as soon as it was out.

"Never mind, you can have it," He said, lodging it in the spine again. He stomped on it for good measure. "It isn't even my favorite weapon."

He twisted the opposite half of the pole and detached it from the half sticking out. He snapped _that_ in half and pulled it apart, a chain connecting the two parts. The ends shifted and changed shape until they were small spiked orbs, slightly bigger than a softball. A meteor hammer. He held it by the middle of the chain, swinging it at his side as the last monster snarled at him and stomped the ground.

It lunged at him, and he ducked and dived to the left, towards the jungle gym. It followed him as he ran to the cheese box and jumped on top of it. With enough height over it, he waited until it was close enough. Once it was, he threw it, the chain wrapping around the monsters neck, and the spikes embedding in its white fur. He landed on its back, stomping down hard, but not hard enough to keep it from moving.

But it was enough for him to get a grip on its fur to steady himself and reach for the last three knives he still had. One by one, he stabbed them into its back. Electricity shot through the monsters body, as well as arching over him and licking the pavement, leaving scorch marks behind. As it died down, he heard the sound of approaching police cars, alarms blaring.

"Seven blocks," he mumbled.

He dragged the beasts back over to the hole and pushed them in, one by one. He'll have to get rid of them later, when there isn't a crowd around. Right as he was about to jump into the hole, he felt the ground shook. He stumbled backwards, falling, and scrambling back as the ground collapsed beneath him into a massive sinkhole, leaving nothing but a black abyss. It grew, taking the newly constructed jungle gym and the section of the school near the kindergartener's area with it, leaving barely enough pavement to walk on around the edge of the school

"It's worse than I thought," he said. He kicked down the door to the cafeteria to find that it was thankfully empty. Running past the classroom, he glanced as saw they were all empty. Good, considering the school was teetering on the edge of a massive pothole. With the school empty, he walked out of the front entrance. Students were gathered on the sidewalk. Not the best place, but not the absolute worst.

He turned back and returned to where the playground used to be.

#

TJ didn't show up at her room that night. Spinelli tried not to make a big deal out of it. You know, despite the massive hole at the school.

_"Geologists say that the school and much of the neighborhood was built on top of limestone, which overtime, became eroded because of rain. People living in homes within a three block radius have been urged to evacuate until the ground can be further assessed for structural safety. In the meantime, the schoolboard is looking for another location for students to continue school."_

Yep. Nothing to be worried about.

He didn't show up the next night, and it was harder to not make a big deal out of it.

It was only on Sunday afternoon when he showed up at her front door, in his normal clothes, complete with a new hat almost like every other weekend, that she stopped worrying. Just a little bit. It was hard to ignore the multitude of stitches that ran down the side of his face.

"Hey, Spin. You busy?" He asked.

"Shouldn't I be asking _you_ that?" She asked back. "Friday was wild. You okay?"

"Yeah, just some stitches and bruises, nothing any other kid doesn't get," said TJ. "Sorry I didn't show up the last two nights. Dad's been on my back for the last few days, and he just let me go. What'd I miss?"

"You mean besides that gigantic hole that we used to call the playground?" She scoffed as they went to her room. "Did you have anything to do with that?"

"No? I mean I saw that the ground was kind of shaky when I went under it but I didn't think it would collapse or anything," he said. "I didn't even get to try out the new jungle gym."

He laid flat on his back on her bed, and she joined him by sitting on the edge.

"It's a jungle gym, Teej. You been on one, you been on all," said Spinelli.

"Still would've been nice," said TJ. "Oh, man, I feel like I've been hit by a truck."

"How do you not feel like that everyday?"

"You get used to it, just like anything else. Dad went crazy with the training the last few days. I just want to lay here until the pain stops."

"What'd he make you do?"

"Some running, some weights. More running. More weights. Running _with_ weights. Combat practice. Some stuff with a medicine ball in a pool. You'd think the water would make it easier, but it doesn't. He started having me learn another language, because of course the punishment has to be well-rounded," he listed off. "Sitting in with him during meetings that made my brain melt. Some official sounding stuff. And he tossed me into a river of lava for the first time, that was fun."

"I wouldn't call that fun!"

"Nah, after all the stuff before, it felt nice. Like a hot bath," he said. "But it's over now, and I want to hang out with my best friend."

"Sounds great, but my parents won't let me out of the house. They're debating if we should go and stay with my aunt across town until this whole thing blows over," said Spinelli.

"That's okay. We can go to my place if you want," he said.

"Anything to get out of this house," she said. "I miss going out. Nowadays it's only school and home. I'd kill for a milkshake at Kelso's right about now."

"Sorry I can't get you a milkshake at Kelso's. But I _can_ get you one from my place," he said. He drew the strange symbol on her closet door, and moments later, they walked into his room. She noticed how messy his room was compared to the last time. Clothes all over the bed, books piled on and around the desk, weapons haphazardly placed anywhere.

"Sorry about mess, I barely had anytime to clean," said TJ.

Spinelli looked around while he made a walkable path. She peaked in one of the open books sitting on his desks. It was written in some language she didn't understand, and wasn't about to try. She opened another, much thinner and approachable looking book. She still didn't understand the language, but there were pictures.

Pictures of demon boys and girls, front and back, arrows pointing to their tails (the girls tails were thinner, apparently), diagrams showing different ways horns could grow in, fangs, nothing different than what TJ already showed her on himself. The next page focused on the tails. One picture showing a boy and girl holding their own tails. Another picture showing their tails being grabbed by someone else, and a surprised expression with a red 'X' and a heart.

"So are you gonna tell me what's up with your tail?" She asked.

"Hopefully no," he said from his closest. "I'd rather not."

She hummed and skipped a few pages until something caught her eye. This time a picture of one of them with wings. A checkmark was next to a picture where the wings were out and even, but 'X's' were next to ones where they weren't, some only halfway out of their backs and bleeding, some misshapen, and others completely different sizes.

"That's gonna be me one day," he said walking over. "I hope getting tossed around doesn't make them grow in wrong. My friends wings grew in completely wrong and she had to get them amputated. They'll grow back, but she was really looking forward to them."

"Was that the other kid you were out with?"

"Uh-huh. Sometimes I call her for backup. Her territory is right next to mine."

"Who is she?" Spinelli asked. "Do I know who she is, too?"

"You met her once before, so I wouldn't be surprised if you didn't remember her," he said.

"So who is she? Or are you not allowed to tell me?"

". . . Technically, she's my wife."

Spinelli paused, making sure she heard correctly. He continued putting the books back on the shelf, waiting for the next string of questions, as if what he said was completely normal.

"You're _wife?!_ What do you mean your _wife?!"_ She nearly shouted. "Since when do you have a _wife?"_

"Or fiancé, I guess, since we're not married, yet," he said.

" _Yet_?!"

"It's not like I had a say in it! This was all set up before either of us were born!" He said. "And it's not set in stone! We can refuse to go through with it when the time comes around, and that's what we're planning to do anyways! We get along fine, but we don't want to get married."

"Good. Arranged marriages are weird," she said, laying back on his bed. "Your dad is dead set on controlling every part of your life, dude."

"Yep. Every single part."

"Anyway, I can go for the milkshake you promised me."

"Right. Okay, um, here. . ."

He grabbed a hoodie from his bed and tied it around her waist.

"You'll stick out like a sore thumb, because you smell like a human. That should mask it, so no one will notice anything, even with no horns or tail. They'll just think you're a late bloomer," he said. "Alright, let's go."

Their footsteps echoed as they walked through the hallway. The lack of light didn't help it look less creepy, and for a while, Spinelli wondered if TJ was leading her to a dungeon. But there was more than enough light when they reached the courtyard. Other kids were out walking, talking, and playing. None of them paid them any mind as they walked past, following the river of lava, away from most of the crowd.

Though TJ walked between her and the bubbling hot lava, it didn't do much to make her feel safer. There wasn't any railing to keep someone from falling in, then again, if it was as harmless as TJ made it sound, maybe putting one up would be pointless.

TJ pushed open the door to the next building. Inside was a large open area with tables of various sizes all around, with a few kids around. The boarder of the room was lines with different stands, each hosting something different. But what hit her the hardest was the smell. She didn't know how hungry she was until she sent of it hit her nose.

"Hungry, Spin?" He asked. "I know you only wanted a milkshake but—"

"You get to eat this all the time?" She asked.

"Not _all_ the time, but yeah, I get what you're asking," he said. "What are you in the mood for? Something spicy, something sweet, something hearty?"

"Surprise me," said Spinelli, sitting at one of the empty tables. "Don't forget about the milkshake."

He walked off, going from stand to stand, accumulating plates as he went. A little ways off in the distance she could see a flight of stairs leading to a second floor of more tables and food stands. If only the school lunch at home smelled half as good as this food did.

"I couldn't get some of everything, but I think I got some stuff you'll like," TJ said when he came back holding too trays packed with food. Including a milkshake.

Getting through half of it each, both were full to bursting as they headed back to his room. Spinelli didn't know how she was supposed to go back to eating 'normal' food after a feast like that. Once back in her bedroom, the two separated, and she was left to lay in bed, but not before pulling out the book she found on his desk.


	12. Chapter 12

"Geez, I go missing for one week and the school literally _collapses_."

School ended up being moved across town to the local community center. Though it was the best space for them to temporarily continue schooling, it wasn't the biggest place, and the rooms were easily overcrowded. With their lesson plans back at the elementary school, and the school being, understandably, deemed unsafe to step foot in, the teachers were left somewhat empty handed when it came to what to teach, as well as resources to use. Which was why most classes were watching educational videos throughout the day instead. This mostly consisted of The Magic School Bus and Bill Nye.

"You should've been there, Teej. That kid was amazing!" Vince said.

The six of them sat in the very back of the temporary classroom, talking among each other, not unlike other students around them.

"I'm never here when interesting stuff happens," said TJ. "I didn't even get to try out the new jungle gym."

"If it makes you feel any better, we only got on it for two minutes," said Gus. "Everyone was trying to get on it."

"At least we don't have to listen to one of Ms. Finsters lectures," said TJ. "So how much did you guys see?"

Vince started going on about what he managed to see, clearly the one in the group that was the most excited about it. TJ listened, though Spinelli knew it was all for show. The teachers rushed them out of the lunchroom as soon as they were sure everyone was inside, and she didn't get to see much.

#

One of the better things about having school at the community center was the amount of space they had to work with for recess. They still weren't allowed outside in the open field behind the center, but the large gym and ample amount of balls made available to them were a good substitute. At least they weren't stuck sitting in the lunchroom again.

And it was almost like being back to normal. The smaller kids were running around, the Ashley's were gossiping on the bleachers, King Bob was sitting on a makeshift throne, and the six of them were attempting to play a 5 on 1 game of basketball. Hopefully without being interrupted. And it was going well.

During one of those rare times where the five of them managed to get the ball away from Vince, the five of them were in a rush to score a few points before he inevitably stole the ball back. Spinelli, too far to attempt to make a shot, tossed the ball to TJ. She caught him of guard, and when he caught it, he stumbled and fell back.

He winced, and slowly go back onto his feet. The game stopped and the others came over.

"You okay, Teej?" Vince asked.

"Uh. . .yeah. Just got caught off guard," he said. "My back hurts. I think I'm gonna sit the rest of this game out, guys."

He stretched, and they could all hear the popping of his spine.

#

A picture of an arm and hand. One looked completely normal, while the other was a deep red, reaching about halfway onto the upper arm, as well as claws on the hands. More pictures of it from various angles, as well as variations of it, ranging from a lighter red to completely black. Another page with pictures of eyes of the usual colors, brown, green, blue, grey, hazel, with arrows all pointing to one eye colored red.

"This would be a lot easier if I could read this," Spinelli said.

She laid on her bed, causally flipping through the pages of the strange book, trying to get some understanding of what they could mean without any words to help. Another age, pictures of eyes of different colors, blue, green, brown, gray, hazel, all with arrows pointing to one red colored eye. _That_ she could understand.

"So their eyes all turn red," she mumbled.

Thinking back on it, with or without the hat, TJ's eyes were always the same color, blue. So this must be something that'll happen later. She rubbed her own eyes. It was getting late, and she needed to go to sleep. She closed the book and tucked it under her bed.

#

True to her usual lectures, everyone was barely paying attention to what Ms. Finster was saying in front of the class. It was a little hard to, with how crowded the improvised classroom was, and that being in a new setting was still distracting to them. Students we're yawning and readjusting their seat to keep themselves awake. Getting caught sleeping in her class was one of the biggest offenses.

They all jumped in their seats when TJ's head hit the table when he finally succumbed to sleep. It was almost funny how, despite the impact, he was _still_ asleep. A testament to how bored they all were.

Ms. Finster dropped a textbook on his desk, making him wake up and sit up straight.

"That's you're only warning, Detweiler," she warned before going back to the front of the class.

He stretched to keep himself from falling asleep again. The last thing he wanted was to get detention over something like this.

"You okay?" Spinelli whispered. He nodded.

"Long night," he answered.

The rest of the day was more of the same. Lots of yawning, stretching, and back twisting in an attempt to keep himself awake and looking alive. During lunch and recess, he took the chance to get some sleep, along with other students.

#

Several pages of the books were focused on wings. There were many kinds, of different sizes, ranging in color from a dark red or black. There pictures of them stretched out and folded in. And a very detailed picture of a back with deep scarring around the wings.

"How do they not just _die_ from how painful that has to be?" Spinelli asked.

Another page showing them breathing fire. The usual orange flames, then green, and finally blue. She didn't know what could change the color of fire, of all things. Just more questions to be asked. Ugh.

She placed the book back under her bed and turn out the lights.

#

_"If you keep missing the mark, you're going to keep doing this, so you either learn how to hit your target, or get used to this."_

_With his arms straight up, TJ carried a large and heavy medicine ball over his head, back and forth to the opposite ends of the gym. His father stood by, arms folded, looking less than impressed, as usual. His arms were far from hurting, it was his back that was making him walk slower than usual. But it wasn't like he could stop without facing the wrath of his dad._

_"Alright, stop," his father said. "You're going to try this again, and this time I expect you to hit all the targets. Understand?"_

_"I'll try, dad."_

_"There is no 'trying'. You don't 'try', you_ _**do** _ _," said his father. He looked at a small tablet in his hand. "Close your eyes."_

_TJ listened, and closed his eyes waiting for the signal. As much as he tried to ignore the stabbing pan in his back, it was getting worse every minute. He had no idea how he was still standing with how weak his knees felt._

_"You've got 60 seconds. Go."_

_When he opened his eyes, different type of weapons were placed around the gym floor, throwing knives, spears, arrows, and poles. He quickly looked around the room for his target, a small round floating holographic bullseye target. He grabbed the closest weapon to him, a throwing knife, and hit the first target, which was quickly replaced by five more._

_He kept grabbing and throwing, trying to hit them all before the time was up. He has to move fast to even get close, with less of a second between hitting one and another. And just hitting them weren't enough. His father, the perfectionist, demanded he hit a bullseye each time._

_He was doing fine with meeting his father strict demands until he felt a harsh stabbing pain in his back that sent him to the floor. He tried staying on his hands and knees, but another wave a pain made him fall flat._

_He heard his father's footsteps as he approached. He winced, unable to move on his own. He felt his father pull up the back of his shirt and inspect his back. His father signed, and picked him up, carrying him back to his bedroom._

_"Your wings are coming in sooner than I expected," his father said. TJ heard the door to his mini fridge close. "I hope you've been doing your corrective stretches to keep them growing in correctly."_

_TJ opened his eyes to see his father preparing an injection._

_"This is a pain killer. It'll stop the pain for a while. You're going to fall asleep about minute after I give it to you. Your job now is to wait until your wings come in," his father said. "I'm leaving for a business trip tonight, so more than likely, I won't be hear for when they come in. Try not to tear the tower appart."_

_He felt a small prick in his left arm before dozing off._

#

Spinelli glanced outside her window right when the clock read midnight. Nothing but rain. At this point, she wasn't that surprised; TJ only showed up about half the time, though he tried to let her know one way or the other beforehand. But four days was a stretch, especially considering how weird he was acting a few days before.

"This boy is going to be the death of me. Ima kill 'em."

Slipping on a hoodie, she locked her door and turned off her light. Carefully, she climbed out her window and into the tree, before climbing to the bottom. If this was anything like the other nights she snuck out, it'll only be five minutes before TJ popped up in one way or another.

And she was right. Walking on the sidewalk next to the woods, there was rustling, until he came running out, dressed in the usual outfit. At first, it seemed like he didn't see her, as he continued running down the street, until he stopped and turned towards her.

"If you don't want me to come out here, you should give someone a warning that you're going to go missing," Spinelli said casually. "Someone's gotta check on you."

He didn't say anything as he slowly came closer with a tilt of his head.

"Uh, you okay?" She asked as he got closer. When he stood right in front of her, he leaned in closer, and she leaded back, ready to punch him in the face if needed. That didn't stop him, as he leaned in closer until his head was right next to hers. Then he stepped back.

"If you weren't my friend, you'd be on the ground!" She said. "What's your deal?"

He stayed quiet and grabbed her wrist, pulling her towards the woods. The second she started to pull back, he scooped her up bridal style and continued on running. She huffed, doing her best to hold in her frustration.

Goddammit. He was being weird.

He stopped when they reached the same cave they sat in two weeks ago. He let her down, and patted his pockets in search of something.

"You gonna tell me what's going on, now?"

Her only answer was him tossing something to her and taking off. The familiar red shield surrounded the cave.

She looked over what was shoved in her hand. It's been a while, but Spinelli was sure the last time she was this thing, it wasn't heart shaped. She leaned against the wall of the cave. The sound of something _breathing_ got her attention. Whatever it was, it was coming from deeper in the cave, but without any light, she could see what it was. It couldn't be one of those monsters; he wouldn't just leave her in a cave with one.

A warm wave of air pushed through, and for a second, she thought she saw a fire.

"Hello?"

She heard slow footsteps coming closer, and the sound of something dragging. After a few moments, who it was finally came close enough for her to see who it was. TJ. He leaned against the cave wall, arms wrapped around himself. The expression on his face showed that he was in pain, and she saw why. A pair of wings had sprouted from his back, and were dripping with blood. What was let of his hoodie was in shreds and barely hanging on him, and she was able to see the dark red discoloring on his arm.

"Oh my God! Teej, what are you doing out here? You need to be at home if your wings just came in!" She said.

Spinelli helped him sit on the cave floor. He slouched over and let out a breath of fire as he caught his breath. Sitting next to him, she got a closer look of his back. The wings weren't very big, in fact, they were closer to the smallest pair she saw in that book, but there was a visible tear in the skin.

"Geez, you're in really bad shape, huh? I know it's a long shot but is there anything in that bag you keep here that could help?" She asked.

He seemed to ignore her question altogether. He stretched out his wings, letting out a long stream of fire from his nose. One wing looked completely fine, but the other was obviously crooked and only halfway out, and it had to be painful. It twitched as he attempted to force the rest of it out of his back, failing. Spinelli was caught off guard when he laid his head on her lap.

"H-hey1 What are you doing? Do I look like a pillow to you?" She asked. He looked up at her with his now _red_ eyes. She scoffed. ". . .whatever. Just don't get used to it, okay? I dunno who you think I am. . ."

He blinked before closing his eyes.

Well. That's one question answered. At least she knew what the problem was now. That still left her wondering who was that kid who brought her here.

"Probably his _wife_ ," she mumbled. "I can't believe he has a freakin' fiancé."

With nothing to do except wait, she lazily ran her fingers through his messy hair. There was a light _clicking_ sound, not quite purring, but not too unlike it either, and it didn't take longer than a few seconds for her to figure out where it came from.

"Are you serious right now?" She asked. "I thought you were a demon kid, not a cat, TJ."

A small amount of steam came from his nose as he rested his head on her lap. She able to get a closer look at his arms. It looked just like the pictures in that book, complete with claws that looked like they could do some serious damage, but he kept them tucked close to himself and away from her.

She took this chance to get a good look at his horns. They felt like dry wood, but were smooth, despite the small nicks and cracks she could see. He flinched when she accidently tugged on one too harshly, and pulled her hand away using his tail.

"Sorry," she said, letting go. "You know, this would be a lot less weird if you told me more about this before it happened. Now you're taking a nap on me like you don't have huge bleeding scars on your back."

She watched his tail unwind from around her wrist and go back to lazily waving. That book didn't help her figure out what the big deal about it was. At this rate, he wasn't going to tell her anytime soon. She reached over and grabbed it again. He flinched and looked up at her again with a growing blush, but made no movement to get his tail out of her grasp. It only went limp. She could feel that it was smooth and covered in fine hairs

". . .Am I interrupting something?"

Spinelli saw the other kid standing just outside the cave. The voice definitely belonged to a girl.

"I can come back if you want, that's fine," she said, pulling back her hoodie. Curly red hair kept up in a loose bun stood out the most. Spinelli vaguely recognized her, but couldn't put a name to her face.

"Have I met you before?" Spinelli asked.

"Yeah, once, so it's okay if you don't remember my name. Our friends played kickball against each other once," she said, holding her hand out to shake. "CJ Rottweiler, at your service. Sorry about earlier. When I'm focused on doing something I don't talk much. I was actually on my way to your place."

"My place?"

"Yep! TJ told me about you and where you lived, and when his wings came in, I couldn't get him out of this cave, so I figured since you knew about this whole thing, you'd be someone he'd come out of hiding for," she said. "Looks like I was right. So do I need to leave you two alone? 'Cause you've gotta pretty tight grip on his tail there."

"Okay? What's the big deal about it? He wouldn't tell me anything," she said.

". . .of course. I think I have a minute," said CJ. She joined Spinelli inside the cave, sitting at the opposite wall. "How do I explain. . .Our tails are, um, _sensitive._ But only when someone _else_ touches or grabs it. Kind of like how you can't tickle yourself but someone else can. You're not hurting him, because, our tails are kinda, um,. . .a _hot spot._ "

"A 'hot spot'?"

"It's intimate, and feels really good when it touched. So you're more or less groping him."

"Oh. _Oh._ "

Spinelli immediately let go of his tail. That made a lot of sense, and she almost felt stupid for not realizing that soon.

"You could've just told me, Teej!"

"In his defense, he can't exactly talk right now. And besides, if he feels safe enough around you to put his head on your lap then you can pretty much do anything and he'll still stay there. You could push him off a cliff and he'll just climb back up," said CJ. "It's just more awkward than anything."

"Hell yeah, it's awkward. I've just been groping my best friend. . ."

"But you didn't know."

"Doesn't help. I feel like a creep," said Spinelli. "So why is he like this?"

"The details are a little complicated, but when our wings come in, our brains sort of reset in a way? We're basically growing another set of limbs, and it's a lot for our brains to adjust to that fast, and to cope we go into a kind of a feral-ish mode, if that makes sense. We're forced to act on our most basic instincts to protect ourselves. Some of us are more aggressive and attack, others are more docile and want to hide until it's over. Like him.

"It only lasts for about a week and a half, but for now, he can't talk, or stand up straight. He just wants to sleep. And protect you if him laying his head on your lap is anything to go by," she explained. "There's a lot more to get into, but I really have to get back out there to make sure I didn't miss anything. I'll be back in ten, maybe fifteen minutes."

She pulled the hood of her jacket up and walked out of the cave. At least _she_ helped explained this whole thing.

"So you're out of commission again, huh, TJ?" Spinelli asked, not expecting an answer. "There's no way you can come to school like this."

She returned to running her fingers through his hair, and the clicking returned. There was some sense of pride with learning that she was the only one who could get him out of hiding, where his fiancé couldn't. Of course she would be able to. They're best friends; who better to do it?

He stretched his wings before tucking them in as best as he could. She pulled one of his arms he kept tucked close, and he didn't do anything to pull it back. She opened his hands for a better look. Even the palm was red, and unlike his tail, it wasn't covered in thin hairs, it was all skin. If it was possible, the claws looked more dangerous up close.

"I wonder what you could cut through with these," she mumbled. He loosely wrapped it around her waist. "Woah, I dunno what you're thinking after that incident earlier, but it was a misunderstanding."

He kept it wrapped around her. She slouched against the cave wall and let his hand go. The things she gets herself into. Sitting in cave with her best friend sleeping with his head in her lap, making some weird clicking sound as she ran her fingers through his hair. She was starting to learn that not thinking much about it makes it easier. A demon boy, capable of taking down monsters, sleeping in her lap. She scoffed. That weak spot of her for obviously dangerous things that were also cute.

He yawned, unintentionally fully exposing those fangs of his and hiding them again, reminding her that he was basically a walking talking weapon.

"I'm back. Everything's taken care of, and it's safe to call it a night," CJ said. "I'm gonna wrap up my arms before heading home. Any more questions?"

"What's it like to be _married_ before you're born?" Spinelli mumbled before she could stop herself.

"Annoying, actually. Lots of practicing stuff you never signed up for," she said. "I can't wait until we're old enough to call the whole thing off. So you can have him, if that's what you're worried about. 'Sides, he's a lot more interested in you than me."

"And what makes you think that?"

"We don't relax around just anyone when we're most vulnerable," CJ said, nodding to her lap. "We gotta feel comfortable around them, and be really close. And even then, laying our head on their lap isn't guaranteed. That's usually reserved for people we especially wanna protect. Usually young family members, or crushes."

". . .He doesn't have a crush on me."

"Could've fooled me. He talks about you a lot. Says you're the strongest person at your school."

"That's because it's true!"

"And he trusts you with his biggest secret. If he didn't trust you to keep it, we have ways to erase peoples memories," she said. "And he hasn't. Gotta like you a whole lot to break one of our biggest rules."

". . . . What's with the clicking sound?"

"The clicking sound. . .It's a sound of content. You're running your fingers through his hair, that's like a shoulder rub," said CJ. "Anything else?"

"Those claws of his look dangerous," she said.

"They are. We can cut through metal with them, so imagine the damage we can do to another person. It's awesome!" CJ said. "He's not gonna hurt you, though. He's got them tucked away from you, right?"

"Uh-huh."

"Yeah, you're fine, don't worry about it. Remember when I said he's one of the one who prefers to hide and wait this thing out? I mean, unless he thinks he's in danger, then that'll be. . . _something_. But hopefully that won't happen," said CJ. "I'm done with my arm. We can take you back to your place, just to make sure no more are lurking around."

Spinelli took her up on that offer, and after some pushing, managed to get TJ to get off her lap. He followed the two of them as they travelled back to her house, slouching, and clearly in pain, but determined to stay close. When they reached her backyard, he still managed to help her into the tree near her bedroom.

"See? He likes you," said CJ.

Spinelli rolled her eyes and climbed back into her room. She watched the two of them leave her backyard before climbing into bed.


	13. Chapter 13

Even from four blocks away, you could still hear the construction equipment by the school as they attempted to fill the massive hole that collapsed right next to the school. According to the news, the ground around it was stable enough, but it needed to be filled and secured before it could even be thought to return the students to the school. There were even talks of abandoning the school all together and building another one on an empty lot somewhere else in town. With how old the school was, it continued to be brought up.

The topic was one that the students of Third Street talked about. They might not have been the biggest fan of school in general, but Third Street Elementary was _their_ school, and they weren't exactly thrilled at the idea of being forced to leave it. But they weren't stupid. They knew that there wasn't much they could do to sway the school board on this issue this time, with or without Detweilers persuading speeches. There wasn't a lot of wiggle room on the issue. Their parents wouldn't let them go to a school where the ground could collapse at any moment.

Spinelli didn't bother getting involved in those conversations. What was going to happen was out of their hands at this point.

After saying good night to her parents, she stepped inside her bedroom, wondering if she could go right to sleep. It's not like TJ was in any condition to stop by her window. But that was put to rest when she saw him lying in her bed.

"TJ what are you doing here?!" She closed and locked her door. "What if one of my parents came in here and saw you?! Are you crazy?"

He didn't give her an answer other than a blank stare. Of course.

"How did you even get in here? I thought my window was closed," she said.

Great. Now what was she supposed to do? It's not like she could tell him to leave, if he even understood a word she was saying. He sat up when she came over and sat on her bed.

"You can't just sneak into peoples rooms, Teej. I know we're friends but I was this close to grabbing my baseball bat and beating you into a pulp," she said. "Guess I gotta get you home. Do I have to go out and look for CJ? She's probably already out there. She'll know what to do."

As if on cue, there was a knock at her window. Looking over, she saw CJ sitting on the branch outside her window.

"I was just talking about you," said Spinelli.

"Is he in here?" CJ asked, looking inside her room. She climbed inside and walked to her closet. "I'm so sorry, I was trying to get back here to cover his area, but he followed me and ran before I could stop him. I figured he would look for you. He likes you enough."

She drew the familiar symbol on her closest door before opening it to a long dark tunnel.

"I sort of need you to come with. He won't listen to me, but he'll definitely listen to you like this," she said.

"What makes you think he'll listen to me? He didn't listen about not sneaking into my room," Spinelli grumbled.

"Just try it."

Spinelli sighed. "Whatever." She walked to her closet, or where it used to be. This seemed to get TJ's attention, as he moved to it on the edge of the bed. "C'mon, Teej. You can't stay here; you gotta go home."

He followed her as she walked further inside CJ followed behind and shut the door. After awkwardly moving around, CJ opened the opposite door to TJ's room.

"Everyone's either out on a field trip or in a meeting, so you don't have to worry about anyone coming in and finding you," said CJ. "I'll be back as soon as I can to bring you back."

"You don't expect me to actually stay here, do you?" Spinelli said. "You didn't say anything about that!"

"I can't make sure he stays here and do my job at the same time! As soon as take my eyes off him, he'll just go after you," she said. "When I'm done, I can take over and you can go home. Just do this one favor for me, I'll pay you back, I promise!" CJ returned back to his closet. "Just this once!"

And with that, he closed the door, leaving the two of them. Spinelli groaned and plopped down on the bed face first. She felt the mattress shift as TJ climbed on. She looked up at him, and found him looking down at her curiously.

"Don't look at me like that Teej. This is mostly your fault," She said half-heartedly. "I guess you can't help it, though. Either way, I'm going to sleep. Don't stare at me the whole time; that's weird, dude."

Spinelli turned over and climbed under the covers. Home or no home, she was still tired and wanted to go to sleep. That sleep however, didn't last too long. As comfortable as the covers were, it worked a little too efficiently, leaving her overheated and scrambling to get from under the covers.

She huffed and pushed herself off the bed. While she looked around his room, he just stayed on his bed watching her. Spinelli was staying out of his closet, remembering how she accidently cut the palm of her hand. The cut had completely healed since then, but she remembered the pain.

Instead, she looked around his desk. Rather than looking like it belong to a kid, human or not, it was perfectly neat and tidy, with no sort of decoration indicating a personality. A thick book sat on it, along with a notebook and pen. She wasn't even going to attempt to open the first book, but she flipped through his notes. Whatever language it was written in, it sure as heck wasn't in English, and she couldn't make out what it said.

"How can you go to two schools at once? I'd go crazy," she mumbled. "And you have a crazy controlling dad that wants you to be perfect in everything."

She moved to the minifridge next to the desk and opened it. It was fully stocked with drinks and food that she didn't recognize. What did any of that taste like? She should try any of it? What if it was toxic to humans?

"You wouldn't let me eat anything that would make me sick, would ya, Teej?" She jokingly asked. She pulled out a bottle of some fizzy pink liquid and turned around to face him. He still sat on his bed, more preoccupied with stretching his wings than what Spinelli had in mind. He glanced at her, the bottle in her hand, then went right back to his wings. "Right. I'm trusting you here to not let me do something stupid. If i die, I'm coming back just to kill you for letting it happen."

She twisted off the cap, and a pale pink mist poured out, along with a sweet aroma. She downed a few sips. The taste wasn't _terrible._ It was something like a bubblegum flavor with a tinge of cherry at the end. The aftertaste, however, reminded her of that one time her mother gave her Pepto-Bismol for an upset stomach.

"Yeah, that's kinda gross," she said, twisting the cap back on. "What else is in here?"

For while, Spinelli occupied herself with sampling whatever was in the fridge. She went uninterrupted for the most part, except when TJ snatched some red fruit out of her hand. Considering how he ate it afterwards, she didn't know if it was because he was hungry or if it was poisonous to her.

All the sampling left her feeling full, and ready to go back to sleep. TJ, however, had other plans, keeping her from climbing back into the bed.

"C'mon, Teej. Move! You can't hog the bed all to yourself!" She groaned. "It's your fault I'm here in the first place!"

Still, he didn't budge, even pushing her back a bit with his tail. Frustrated, she jumped in, taking him by surprise.

"You act like there isn't more than enough space for the both of us," Spinelli said. "I hope you snap out of it soon, TJ. You're weird enough without being like this." He only stretched and yawned in response, ending in a huff of flames out of his nose. "So I've been thinking. You should tell the others about, you know, this. That way you wouldn't have to come up with reasons why you're missing school so much. I know you said you're supposed to keep this secret, but I found out and you trust me with it. I think you can trust the guys with it, too. They'll freak out like I did, but I'm sure they'll think it's really cool. You're probably not even listening to me, are you?"

Her answer was in the form of him nodding off, struggling to stay awake. Would he even remember what she said? Maybe, maybe not. He stretched and rolled his neck in a circle to attempt to stay awake.

"Don't let me keep you up, dude," she said. "I wanna go to sleep, too. But it's too hot."

Seemingly taking her advice, he laid down on his stomach, keeping his weight off his wings. It was only when he bent his knees, leaving his lower legs and feet angled upwards, that she was able to see that those changed, too. Like his arms and hands, it was now colored a deep red, and his feet looked more like claws than anything.

"Even your feet, too? It looks like this thing is getting worse," she said, laying down next to him. "I'm sure you weren't like this the last time I saw you."

He sleepily blinked at her, resting his head in his arms.

"You're so weird, Teej. But in a good way. You being a demon, I'm still having trouble wrapping my head around all this. Monster boy or not, you're still putting yourself in danger. And you're my friend, I don't want you to get hurt. That one night you got stabbed with a branch. How many bones have you broken? Did you ever get your skull smashed in and then come to school the next the day like its nothing? I dunno want to think about all this. Like it great you're keeping us all safe, but do _you_ feel safe? What happens if you can't handle things one night?"

By now, he had completely dozed off.

"Or maybe I'm worrying over nothing," she mumbled. "I hope I am."

This whole thing felt like a bizarre dream that was taking too long to wake up from.

It didn't take long for the closet door to open. CJ stepped through, her clothes looking worse for wear, and in desperate need of a hot shower and a few dozen band-aids.

"Thanks for helping me out, I really appreciate it," said CJ. "I wouldn't have been able to focus with him running toward. I owe you one, Spinelli."

"I'll keep that in mind," Spinelli said, climbing out of bed. TJ stayed put, fast asleep. "I'm ready to go home."

"Right."

While Spinelli climbed out of bed, CJ drew a new pattern on his closet, allowing it to open to her room. After stepping through, she climbed right into bed.


	14. Chapter 14

After last night, there was something weird about how normal it was to just get up, get dressed, and get to school. Maybe it wasn't just last night, but everything about this whole demons thing finally coming together to form a new normal. Maybe. Spinelli wasn't sure.

There was plenty of time to think about it in class. The teachers were only giving them busy work to do for most of the day. Their lesson plans had to be left behind, leaving them without their usual assignments to give. But of course, they had to do something. Besides, Ms. Finster wouldn't have them talking in class.

Right now, the class was tasked with doing every problem in their math textbooks. Most students had to pair up in a small group to share one of the few textbooks that a couple of students had with them after they had to evacuate the school. With Gretchen being the only one in the group to still have her book, because of course she would, they were working from it, occasionally turning it to get the next problem.

But back to thinking.

What the heck was last night all about? How did TJ even break into her room? She was sure that window was locked; her mother made sure all the windows and doors were locked what with everything going on. Maybe it slipped her mind this one time?

What was his deal anyways? She figured that he would be going after those monsters instead of breaking into her room? She should ask him what was up with that whenever he gets back to normal. If he remembers anything.

But hey, at least he isn't stuck doing 500 math problems. Or whatever kind of math he had to do back at home.

Oh well. At least he's smart enough to not come after her in the middle of the day. At least she hoped so.

It felt like forever until lunch time rolled around. Without a proper lunchroom at the community center, they had to improvise and use one of the gyms as a makeshift cafeteria. But it worked, as lunch trays were carted in for those who didn't bring their own lunch.

But Spinelli wasn't able to get so much as a bite out of her lunch before Vince of all people started asking her questions.

"So c'mon, Spin. You gotta have some more info on that mystery kid," he asked.

'More than you know,' She thoughts.

"Sorry, Vince. He's been secretive lately. I don't have anything new to tell you guys," she lied. "Besides, he hasn't come to my room in a couple of days. It's not like I'm gonna go out and chase him down."

"I guess not. I just want to know more about the kid whos crazy enough to face those monsters head on!" Said Vince. "I wanna be friends with that kid."

"I'm sure he'll be friends with you, Vince." She deadpanned. "What do you want me to do? Make him stay still long enough to meet you?"

"If you don't mind."

"I _do_ mind. But it's not gonna happen. He barely stands still long enough for me to ask any questions. What about the rest of you guys? Do you want to meet him, too?" She asked.

"well. . .I would be interesting to find out how a kid could have enough strength and endurance to consistently fight those monsters off. Sometimes multiples of them," said Gretchen. "I wouldn't mind the opportunity to ask him some questions and maybe run a few tests."

"I think it'd be cool to talk to him. He's a really life super hero!" said Gus.

Their conversation got the attention of the rest of the class who had their own thoughts to add. They wanted an autograph, a picture, to have a conversation with the mystery kid they got a close up of in action a few days ago. It was like Gus said, they thought of him as some real life super hero. One that they had a chance to meet.

'Yeah right. Wait'll TJ get's a load of this.'

"Look, he's a busy guy! He can't just stop by for a bunch of fans," Spinelli said. "I can ask him but I'm not making any promises."

That seemed to be enough for them to leave her alone. Class starting up again didn't happen soon enough.

After school, sitting in her bedroom, she somewhat expected TJ to pop out of nowhere like he did the night before. Either at the window or on her bed. Or through the closet. Why not? He was full of surprises these days.

But no, he didn't pop up at all. Not in the evening, and not through the night. Or the rest of the week. Nether him or CJ asking her to keep an eye on him. She was happy to get a full nights rest again. . .but part of her was at least a little worried about him. He was already out of it as it is.

'He knows how to handle himself, though.' She thought at 3 am Friday morning.

At least the sightings of those monsters were dwindling down to a few times a night, even with people (dumb people in Spinelli's opinion) going out because they wanted to see them up close, for the thrill of it. Idiots. They were putting their lives in danger for no reason. If they got killed then that was on them for being so stupid.

After turning off her bedroom light to go to bed, she turned and was greeted with two glowing red eyes right outside her window. The sudden sight almost made her jump out of her skin.

"Teej, you just cant pop up like that with the red eyes! You almost gave me a heart attack," she said, leaning against her windowsill. "So whats going on? You wont believe what people at school were saying about you. Or are you still out of it?"

Seeing as how his eyes were more focused on her room than her and that it didn't look like he was even listening, Spinelli guesses that was the case.

"Jeez, how long are you gonna be like this? I'm starting to get a little worried." She sighed. "Do you wanna come in?"

A bit surprisingly, he actually nodded.

"So you do understand what I'm saying! Or some of it. C'mon, climb on in."

She moved out of the way, letting him easily climb inside where he made himself home on her bed.

"CJs gonna be here to come get you soon, isnt she? She better not ask me to stay with you like last night," she said.

He looked around her room, seemingly not able to understand her again.

"I can't wait until you're back to normal. You won't believe what everyone at school is saying about you," she said. "I mean, they still don't know it's you, but they want to see more of you."

She felt something tap her shoulder. She looked; it was his tail, and it was wrapped around something.

"What? What is it?" Spinelli asked. She grabbed whatever his tail was wrapped around to get a better look at it. After untangling it she was able to get a better look at it.

It was a necklace, its silver chain polished enough to see a small reflection. A pendent was attached, with a ruby embedded inside.

"Is this a real ruby?" She asked. "How'd you get your hands on this? You're not actually giving this to me are you?"

He yawned, showing no signs of taking the necklace back. How much was this thing worth? She didn't even _like_ jewelry. Her mother was forever frustrated with her ear piercings closing up because she refused to wear so much as simple, unnoticeable studs to keep them open. If she couldn't be forced to wear those, then why the heck did TJ ever think that she would wear something as flashy as this?

Well. It does look nice.

"Thanks anyways, Teej," She said, placing it on her dresser. She'll have to find somewhere in her room to hide it. "Dunno why you'd think I'd want a necklace but you're not exactly in the right state of mind to be asking questions. But you've gotta get out of here! You can't just be sitting on my bed like this."

That, he did seem to understand, as he climbed back out the window. Just like that he was gone. When she went to the window to see, he was gone. At least he wasn't acting like last night. Much better.


	15. Chapter 15

With the incident of those monsters being on a steady decline, more people began to feel safe to stay outside when the sunset. At least for an hour or two. The chaos had been leaving everyone on edge in fear of their lives, and they were still unsure, but also eager to get back to their normal lives, free of the constant sense of danger. The positive news was a welcome change.

Sleepovers were a somewhat regular thing in the group, with them rotating who's house they went to, and this time, it was hers. Despite this being the first time in a while that all of them, or the five of them, she should say, were together, she kept an eye on the window as they sat in the living room. Given how often TJ liked to pop up at her window, she wouldn't put it past him to show up again tonight.

They settled into a horror movie marathon pretty fast. With plenty of popcorn, soda, and other junk food to go around, they say either on the couch or floor, with their eyes glued to the screen.

Their shaking nerves didn't do them any favors when they heard something loud outside. It sounded like something decided to send the trashcans outside flying. The movie on screen went ignored as they focused on the noise.

"I think one of us should go look," said Vince.

"That sounds like you're volunteering," Spinelli said.

"I'm not, but one of us has to go over and look, right?"

"We're all going over to look."

Together, they slowly walked to a window. The noise had gone away, so whatever it was that caused it was probably gone, too, right? When the curtains were pulled open, and the five of them were face to face with one of those monsters, with only a sheet of glass between them. They screamed, it roared, and raised its massive paw to swipe at the window and break it, but it didn't get that chance, as it was swiftly kicked away and to the ground. Landing in front of the window was the resident superhero himself, hood up and ready to defend them.

Their fear soon turned to apprehension and excitement as they each watch the 'hero' in question fighting off the monster. And he was doing a good job, until he was thrown onto the street. He handed hard, and they winced at the sound of impact, except Spinelli who was well-aware of how much damage he could take.

But he struggled to pick himself back up. The same monster that threw him approached, and was ready strike. But another fighter came just in time landing a hit and saving him from what looked to be a deadly blow. Still, he stayed low to the ground, hunching over, and struggling to stay up even that much.

He was able to pick himself up the last times Spinelli saw him after a fight, even after being impaled, but this was different. He couldn't stand fully, and the shaking of his legs threatened to make him fall to his knees. Whether or not to go out there and help him was a thought that didn't last longer than a second. She moved from the window and grabbed her jacket.

"Spinelli, are you crazy?! What do you think you're doing?"

"I'm helping out a friend, what does it look like?"

"Didn't you see those things? They're all over the place!"

"It's extremely dangerous out there!"

"Then stay here. I'm gonna go out there and help him," Spinelli said, stepping into her boots.

"C'mon, Spinelli, we're not gonna let you go out there by yourself."

""Then hurry up!"

The five of them rushed to get their jackets and shoes on before opening the front door. They could hear the fight going on around the block, but from where they were, couldn't see anything. But they did see their target slump into the nearby woods. The tree's were sparse enough to see through, but in the middle of the night, it looked thicker than it truly was. Quietly, they walked into the woods, looking for him. Just a few minutes in, they thought about how stupid it was for none of them to think to bring a flashlight.

"Look!"

They turned to where Mikey pointed, and saw a form slumping into a small cave. Together, they walked to the cave, keeping an eye out for anything that might pop out of nowhere.

"Where is he?"

Their answer was given in the form of a roar from deeper inside. It began to rain, and not wanted to be out in the middle of the woods, they huddled just on the inside of thee cave.

"Relax, I've got this," Spinelli said. With one hand on the wall of the cave, she made her way deeper inside, but it didn't take long for her to reach a dead end, a pile of rocks. Looking up, she saw the only source of light available, the dull glow of TJ's eyes from under his hood.

"You still alive own there, Spin?"

The sound of their voice caught his attention, and the smell of burning wood wafted through the cave as smoke blue through his nose with the occasional ember. He laid on top of the room, looking uncomfortable but unwilling to move from his spot.

"Hey, calm down. They're our friends, remember?" She asked. "They aren't gonna hurt us. I know you're out of it, but you have to recognize them, right? I'm fine, guys! Just stay there."

But they weren't listening, as she heard their footsteps approaching. This only made things worse, as she saw the light of the fire rise in his chest before blue-tinted flames slowly flowed out of the sides of his mouth. By the light of the flames, she saw his fangs were much more pronounced than the last time she saw him.

Crap. Clearly he either didn't want the others near him, or didn't recognize their voices at all. One way or another, he was willing to breath fire to keep them way.

"I told you guys to stay right there! I'm handling things!" She yelled back. They were still out of sight, good. Well, since TJ didn't look like he was going to move from his spot, maybe it was okay to go back to the others for a minute. "Stay here."

"What's going on, Spinelli?" asked Gus.

"Look, he just wants to be left alone, so can you guys stay at the front of the cave?" She asked, aggravated, which came off as angry on any other day. The chance of them finding out things was getting too close for comfort.

"Is he mad or something?"

"Sure, whatever. He's really ticked off, so don't make it worse."

Loud clicking, not unlike the same clicking she head weeks ago in this same cave, echoed against the wall, along with limping steps. She turned and saw the subject of the conversation step out of the shadows, leading against the cave wall, with an expression showing he was immense pain, but despite this, he was still limping. With every step, he breathed out a puff of blue flames.

The moment she took one step closer to help him, he wrapped his tail around her waist and moved her behind him, making her fall to the ground. The others, however, didn't know how to respond. How are you supposed to react when your friends steps out with horns, fangs, and a tail (and were those wings?!)

"Spinelli, what's going on. . .?"

From her position on the ground, Spinelli saw the light of the flames rise from inside him.

"Stop asking questions and duck!" There was less than a second between them hitting the ground and a strong, steady stream of fire being blown where they stood. Once it was over, TJ slid down the wall and landed just in front of Spinelli, panting, and very clearly exhausted.

"Spinelli, do you mind telling us what the heck is going on?"

". . .God, I don't even know where to begin."


End file.
